Everywhere and Nowhere
by neffititi
Summary: Valkubus zombie apocalypse AU. The world has ended and the majority of the human race has died, and the living ones struggled to survive, including Tamsin and Bo. Rated M for a reason.
1. Chapter 1 - Downpour

**A/N: So I decided to write this zombie apocalypse AU since I like zombie shows and games.**

 **In this story everyone is human, well, human or zombie. And the relationship development is probably gonna be very, very slow.**

 **Anyway, I hope you all like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Lost Girl, and I don't profit from it. If I did, it would be Valkubus heavy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - Downpour**

The last breath of the day was consumed by the nightfall, and the rainclouds devoured the sky. Lightnings came, followed by distant thunders.

A man limped along the sidewalk in a back alley in the darkness, with his head tilting to one side and one of his legs bending in a weird way. His ragged clothes barely covered his body, exposing the festered flesh and large skin lesions.

The lightning illuminated the entire world for a brief moment. Like having a lamp suddenly flashing behind him, the man was able to see things for a split second. His attention got drawn to a concert poster on the wall on his right side.

A corner of the poster flicked in the strong wind, the ink on it already washed away. Still, the young female singer's smile was so sweet that it caught his eyes.

He stared to the direction of the poster, and approached it. He sniffed for a few times, before he let out a disappointed growl and left.

Dragging his bent leg over the bricks of the sidewalk, he wandered away from the alley and entered a major street.

He paused in the middle of the intersection in the darkness, looking around, sniffing at the stores on the side.

Most stores had their doors and windows locked, chained and boarded. Some of them, however, had their doors wide open, revealing a room with scattered merchandize, falling chairs, and blood spattered walls behind them.

Then sky lit up again with loud thunders humming inside the clouds, and the man noticed a small bakery on his left side. He caught a glimpse of the female chef statue behind the window. She was holding a big cake with her thumb up.

He stared at her in the bright yet brief light, taking in her light blue dress, the "best cake in town" sign on the cake, and the big grin on her face.

He sniffed again and approached the store, till his nose was pressed against the cold glass. He didn't smell anything, though, so he grumbled and left.

After another bright lightning and a deafening thunder, there came the pouring rain.

The man stopped and raised to look at the dark sky. He stuck his tongue out to catch the heavy rain drops, before he grunted at the bland taste and walked away.

The lightning seemed to have become more frequent, frequent enough for him to see his vague reflection in a puddle under his feet. He tilted his head hard, staring at himself, inhaling again. Other than the hot air and the rain, he smelled nothing.

He stepped over the puddle and wandered in the rain, until he arrived at a big intersection.

The traffic lights quitted work a long time ago, and the road signs had fallen to the ground. Three out of the four exits of the intersection were blocked by piled up cars, huge sandbags, twisted barb wires and varies of large objects, leaving him nowhere to go.

He turned back, glancing at where he had come from. Unwilling to go back, he circled in the middle of the intersection, wondering if he should try to climb over one of the piles.

He eventually decided that he should, and so he shambled towards the east exit.

The wind blew through the sultry air, carrying over a fresh smell to him.

He paused and inhaled deeply, puss humming in his throat. He turned to look at the direction, sniffing aggressively in the darkness, devouring that smell It was the smell of a living human, the smell of a pumping heart and a fresh brain.

He growled excitedly and straightened his body, his tongue now licking his rotten lips. He stumbled towards that smell in the heavy rain.

He had only taken a few steps, before someone appeared on top of the car pile that was in front of him.

The lightning revealed the slender contour of a female, and also her face that was partly covered by the hood of her raincoat. Silhouetted by the bright flash, she paused for a split second, her chest heaving hard, and a few locks of blonde hair slid out from her hood.

She stared at the man as she drew her falchion out from the sheath tied to her right side of her right thigh.

The man inhaled her sweet scent and prepared to dash. Before he had moved though, the woman leaped towards him in the air. With a single slash she chopped his head off.

His head fell, rolling on the ground before she even landed on her feet. It went into a puddle and stopped. The lightning allowed her to see that rotten face, the stuck out tongue and one empty eye socket.

The body languishly fell down, and blacked, thickened pus oozed out from the cut neck.

The woman huffed, and simply let the rain wash the blood stain off her blade.

She sheathed her blade afterwards and pulled her hood tighter to shield herself from the rain. Then, she walked down the street in the downpour.

* * *

When she realized that the heavy rain wasn't going to stop any time soon, she decided to find a place to crash for tonight.

She examined the stores on the sides of the street with a flashlight in her hand, aiming for one that was perfectly boarded. And eventually, she found a small restaurant.

She tilted the flashlight up and glanced at its name sign. _Cafe Saffron_ , with the second word partly smudged by blood and gooey tissue. Although, the rain had washed most of the goo off.

She examined the outside of the restaurant cautiously, looking for any signs of zombie intrusion. After having found none, she pressed her ear to the crack between two wood planks that had been nailed to the window frame and listened carefully to any growling, grunting or purring sound made by the zombies.

She heard none, and that made her feel a little relieved. She scanned the surroundings again, before she quickly took off a few planks from a window and squeezed herself through.

At first she just lightly pressed the tip of her toes on the floor, her eyes vigilantly seeking for any possible danger inside. After finding none, she slowly and quietly lowered the heel of her foot, and entered the restaurant.

She placed the planks back to the window and made sure they were nailed back properly, then she held up her flashlight in her left and scanned the room, her right hand holding her falchion.

It was a very small restaurant. The dining place only had five sets of tables and chairs. Each table had a small vase in the center, but the flowers had dried out a long time ago.

Behind the counter, there were the menu and the framed licenses on the wall, with a small liquor cabinet under them. Empty trays and kitchen utensils were behind the display case countertop, with a few rags on the side.

An opened door next to the menu revealed a small pantry room behind, and she frowned when she saw cases of water and food on the shelves in it. It seemed to her that someone had been using this place as a surviving bunker, but where is this _someone_?

She took a deep breath and held it as she approached the counter slowly. The moment she turned and entered the back of it, she paused and sighed.

She saw a decomposed body sitting against the back of the counter. His limbs lolled, his mouth wide open and so were his eyes. A huge splatter of blood, brain tissue and bone fragments was on the counter behind his head . In his right hand there was a revolver.

She let out a deep breath as reached for one of the rags on the counter. She wrapped it on on the grip panel of the revolver and picked it up. she put the three remaining bullets into her pocket, and tossed the gun aside.

Glancing at the dead man, she sighed. "Sucks to be you," she murmured.

She checked the pantry room next, her heart fluttered at all the canned food, bags of flour, cases of bottled water, and the medical supplies.

"Jack pot," she murmured to herself, a subtle smile blooming at the corner of her mouth. She stabbed her falchion into the water case and cut it open, before she grabbed a bottle. She gulped it, wiped her mouth with her sleeves and tossed the empty bottle to the corner of the room.

Sitting down in the middle of the floor, she took her backpack off and put a couple of bottled water into it. Then she went through everything in there, and selected a few high calorie food and a small amount of medical supply to put into her bag. She'd have taken everything if she hadn't been on a mission and had to pack light.

She scooted to the corner, grabbing a jar of peanut butter. She opened it, scooping out some peanut butter with her index finger. She put it into her mouth and closed her eyes as she savored the creamy, nutty taste.

Taking her map out, she marked the restaurant on it, so if she needed to come back she'd know where it was.

She took a few candy bars and slid them into the side pocket of her pants, before she exited the pantry.

She stood in the middle of the dining room, wondering if she should just stay here or go find another place with no dead body behind the counter.

Eventually she decided to settle down here. She was too exhausted, and didn't want to risk running into more zombies. Besides, it was just one night. She could handle the nasty smell in the air, since she had slept in places much worse. A dead body is much better than a flesheater after all.

She took a couple of liquor bottles out and wrapped them in layers of trash bags she found under the sink. She smashed them, and poured the tiny broken pieces under the windows and doors, so if anyone came in she would hear them.

After setting up the alarm system, she took her sleeping bag out and laid it against the wall, away from the dead body.

She took off her raincoat, and hung it on the back of a chair right next to her. Leaning against the wall, she pulled her boots off, and then her socks. She sat down, wiggling her sore toes while drinking some more water.

Her dinner was simple, a can of diced fruits, a can of sardine, two candy bars smeared with a thick layer of peanut butter and a bottle of water. She devoured everything, including the juice in the can. The chocolate was too sweet for her taste, but she knew her body needed all the sugar after the long trek she had today.

She licked the last bit of juice off the edge of the can, before she threw the can to the counter. After the loud sound of the can hitting the countertop and then the floor, it was all the downpour outside again, consuming her.

She slid into her sleeping bag and turned off her flashlight. The heavy raining made the darkness even worse. She sighed, rolling to her side and closing her eyes, her right hand pressing on the hilt of her falchion that was placed right next to the pillow she made with her folded jacket.

Slowly, she drifted into her dreams.

* * *

With one hand pressing on the soaked tree trunk, and the other pressing on her left knee, she gasped desperately, forcing the air into her lungs till it stung her throat and pained her chest.

She heard someone stumbling through the woods in the rain, towards her, and she turned around in great panic. She wanted to pull out her weapon, but her arms were giving out.

She pressed her back against the tree, panting, her fingers digging into the tree bark. The rain poured down, and she trembled hard, unable to feel her legs. She eventually grabbed the hilt of her dagger with her shaking hand, and prepared for a fight when someone appeared in front of her.

Her heart was flooded by a blissful joy, though, when she recognized the person.

"Acacia!" She exclaimed and ran towards the elder woman. She noticed the blood on her face and a long, deep scratch wound on her right forearm. She caught the woman in her arms before Acacia collapsed.

"You are hurt," she said, her voice shaking in fear.

Acacia shook her head as she tried to straighten herself. "All clear, Tamsin," she said. "Camp's all clean now. Let's...go back."

Tamsin nodded, and followed her. The journey back to the camp was quiet, so quiet that it gave her creeps. Acacia blood was dripping along her arm and then into the dirt the entire time.

They walked, walked, and walked, and the rain got heavier and heavier. Eventually, Tamsin was too exhausted to continue, and so she stopped and panted.

The other woman turned around. "Hurry up," she slurred in a low voice. It almost sounded like a vague growl. "Before they munch your brain…."

As the last word slipped out, Tamsin inhaled in horror. Her heart stopped as she watched Acacia's face rotting slowly in front of her. Her mouth dropped, and her lips fell off. Then dark goo came out from her eye sockets. Her blackened teeth parted, and her tongue swirled behind them.

"Tamsin..." Acacia growled and reached for her.

Tamsin screamed.

* * *

With a loud, painful gasp, Tamsin jerked up and grabbed her weapon. Her heart pounded in fear and the cold sweat soaked her back. She tucked her into the corner of the wall, and turned on her flashlight with her shaking hand.

The warm glow comforted her. Slowly, she realized that it was just a dream, but the thunderstorm outside was so loud. It made her dream feel so real to her, as if she was running through the woods in the heavy rain right now.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and pressed her back against the wall. Somehow the image of that dead body behind the counter entered her mind. It was very close to what Acacia had looked like in her dream, and she had a hard time getting it off her mind.

She swallowed her fears as she forced herself to think about something else, but her mind kept going back to the dead body.

She started to wonder why that man killed himself in here. He had had a pantry full of supplies, and he turned this place into a perfect fortress with all the boarded windows and doors. He could have survived for a very long time.

Why had he killed himself then? Had he been too afraid? Had his sanity been consumed by the loneliness and the great frustration? Maybe he had lost someone he had loved, so he decided that he would no longer suffer? Or maybe, he had lost all his hope, like many of the others who had survived from the zombies but had chosen to end their lives.

Maybe he had just stopped wanting to live any longer. So, he sat down, shoved the gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.

"Sucks to be you," Tamsin whispered. Maybe to the dead man. Maybe to herself.

Letting out a long, heavy sigh, she drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her shins. Burying her face into her knees, she sighed again, which almost sounded like a whimper.

The thunder exploded outside, one after another, and the sound of the downpour drained everything from her.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Point One Percent

**Chapter 2 - The 0.1 Percent**

The downpour had turned into drizzle, and Tamsin left the restaurant. She had her backpack filled with bottled water, can food and medical supplies. It was heavy but she knew she needed them on the road.

It was still dark outside. She figured that it must be long before dawn, around 2am maybe. She would love to check the time on a watch to confirm that guess, but she had none. Who needed a watch in the zombie apocalypse anyway? It wasn't like she was going to school or work, or rushing to a date or anything. For the past ten years she had been getting up when it was bright outside, going to bed when it was too dark to do anything, and doing things whenever she needed to. Time didn't matter to her like it once had been, and maybe it never would matter to her again.

Inhaling the misty air, she walked down along the street, heading to the interstate.

It was deadly quiet. Every time she took a short break, the silence embraced her, as if everything and everyone was gone and she was the only person alive in the entire world.

Loneliness invaded her heart, like the mist invading her clothes. The only thing that accompanied her in the darkness, was the tiny, pale star appearing at the edge of the clouds. Its light was so faint, like a dying man's last breath.

* * *

When the dawn finally arrived, she started to see lined up, abandoned cars on both sides of the road she was on. The closer she was to the interstate, the more cars she saw. Most of them were empty, with their doors open, like whoever had been inside had grown tired of waiting in the traffic so they had left on foot.

Some of the cars, though, had their glasses broken or their doors forced open. They had been sitting there for too long, and the rain had washed everything clean. However, Tamsin could still see the stained fabric on the seats. Blood had soaked them and it wasn't possible for the rain to make it go away like it had never been there.

She knew exactly what had happened to them, or to whoever had been sitting in them. The zombies must have attacked them while their cars had been stuck in the traffic. The flesheaters must have broken into the cars, dragged the passenger out, and devoured them.

She sighed as she scanned the area around her in reflex. It was all empty now, except a few deers in the distant field. They stared at her curiously, before they disappeared behind the bushes.

Tamsin kept walking, until she arrived at a gas station that was very close to the entrance ramp of the interstate.

She decided to take a short break there, stepping over the gas pump nozzles that had fallen on the ground before entering the store.

She found nothing useful in there. It was completely empty, except the fallen shelves, empty refrigerators and all kinds of trash. In the corner there were some old sheets and several dirty, half torn mattresses. Beside them there were a few pieces of old furniture, and they were all empty too. She saw no personal belongings, so she assumed that whoever had taken this place as a shelter must have left a long time ago.

She walked to one of the pumps and sat down beside it. Scanning the surroundings again, she took out a bottle of water and some food. She started to eat her breakfast of a small pack of crackers and some meat jerkies she had brought with her. She battled with one particular hard, dry jerky piece, pulling one end of it with her hand and the other with her teeth. Eventually she was able to tear it apart and eat it. As her jaws starting to get sore, she told herself that next time when making meat jerky she should never make them this dry again. After swallowing all the meat, she opened a can of fruit and inhaled everything in the can.

She tossed the empty can away from her, and finished the last bit of the water in the bottle. She put the empty bottle back into her backpack, and left the gas station.

Before she entered the entrance ramp, she paused to glance at the road sign there.

The number of the interstate in the center was covered by a big sheet of metal made from flattened aluminum cans. On it someone had written informations of a nearby settlement location with permanent markers. There was even a simple map in the corner telling people how to go there. She sighed at the map, because she knew that that settle had been wiped by zombies two years ago. Only a handful of survivors had been able to get out and tell the horrible story.

She rubbed her nose with the back of her right hand, and checked the directions on the road sign.

The right part of it told her that she needed to turn right immediately to go to Creeksville, and the left told her that the ramp ahead was to go Madison.

Under the name of "Creeksville", there was a red skeleton sign drawn by paint, partly washed out. She stared at the hollow eyes of the skeleton for a second or two, before she turned right immediately.

She maneuvered around the cars that was blocking her way as she walked. When she got on the interstate, she saw miles of cars lining up along both directions. Some of them had run over the roadblocks, while some had run into each other.

She turned around a school bus as she watched how its front end had crashed into a compact. Then, she checked her map, and decided to take detour through the woods on the side of the road since it started to get hot.

The moment she stepped into the woods, she was welcomed by swarms of mosquitos and the able-to-kill-anything-alive humidity. Though it still felt better, since the trees generously provided shades for her.

Soon the sweat started to streak down her face, her neck and her back, soaking her clothes and her hair. Occasionally, a drop of sweat or two slid down along her forehead, went through the barrier formed by her brows and eyelashes, and entered her eyes. It stung, forcing her tears out, blurring everything.

* * *

After a few hours, she arrived at a creek, and she decided to take a lunch break.

She scanned the surroundings first as usual, and after having seen no threats, she sat down against a tree beside the creek, and put down her backpack.

She rubbed her sore shoulders, feeling every single piece of her skin burning, either because of the heat or pain. She leaned forward, cupping some cool clear water before spraying it on her face. She gasped in great satisfaction, and did it again.

Then, she took off her boots and her socks, before she put her feet into her water. It felt so great that she just wanted to stay here forever.

She stared at the clear, inviting liquid, desperately wanting to gulp it, down it, and let it run down her throat. However, she knew well about the waterborne parasites and she had no intention of inviting any one of them into her system.

 _You must boil the water before you drink it when you are in the wild, kid_. That familiar voice ringed in her mind. _You think there's any hospital for you to go to when you get sick?_

She let out a deep breath and stood up. After putting on her boots she started to gather tree branches and twigs. Then she made a fire.

Untying the big stainless steel mug from the strap of her backpack, she immersed it into the creek and filled it with water. She boiled it, and cooled it down by putting the mug into a place in the stream where the water was shallow.

While waiting, she drank her last bottled water. Then, she took out all the empty bottles she had kept in her backpack, and started to filled them with the water she had just cooked.

After all bottles were filled, she ate her lunch, which included a can of luncheon meat and half a mug of mush made by crushed hard tack and boiled water. The bland tasted bored her, and she had to picture a pot of fresh stew with juicy meat and fresh vegetables while eating.

After downing her mush, she washed her mug and cooked more water to drink. Waiting for it to cool down, she checked her map. She was thrilled to find out that the creek would run a long way along her route. It would keep her hydrated, and maybe provide some fish for her. And if she had to hunt, it was always easier to find animals around the water.

She estimated the rest of her journey carefully, realizing that she would arrive at her destination in less than three days. If she could find the things she had come all the way for, she could be back to the small community she was living right now in ten days.

Then, she would trade the things with the grumpy, old bar owner for things she wanted.

 _Wanted_. She thought about the word and she almost laughed, because _want_ was a luxury she couldn't afford now. Her life had took a big turn ten years ago, and everything in it had changed so drastically, that she was in no place to _want_ anything anymore. The only things in her life were the things she had to have so she could survive. No more pretty clothes or cool laptops. The things that were important to her right now, were things like antibiotic cream, AA batteries, or a box of tampon, things that she had never think of looking twice ten years ago.

She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh, before she closed her map and put it back. Then she resumed her journey.

* * *

The setting sun rendered everything in a golden sheen, and Tamsin decided to take a dinner break when she had arrived at an RV parking place outside the camp area of a state park, with two dozens of RVs parking inside.

In front of her, four motorhomes and two trailers formed a loose circle with a carefully built fire pit in the center. One of the RVs had its small outside kitchen open, however the little fridge had only decayed food inside.

From the cobwebs that covered the doors and the windows, the foliage covering the fire pit and the top of the vehicles, and the flat, rusty tires, she knew this campsite had been abandoned for quite a while now.

She looked at the vehicles, one after another, wondering if she should go check the inside of them and look for anything that was useful. Before she had made a decision, she heard something tumbling inside one of the vehicles that was in the far corner of the parking place.

She paused as she drew her falchion out. It was then she heard a hum of low growls.

Approaching that vehicle in stealth, Tamsin had her breath held and her blade up. When she arrived at the cracked open door, she pressed her back against the outside of the trailer and inched forward to the door.

She heard growls coming from inside. The growls of a hungry, provoked zombie. She also caught a strong, rotten zombie smell in the air with a hint of the smell of fresh blood leaking through the crack.

Taking a deep breath, she held the door handle and jerked it open.

A startled zombie turned to her. His blackened teeth parted, and a warning hum came out. He was small, a child when he had been turned. He still had a backpack on his back, and the green dinosaur pattern on it was covered in dried blood, dirt and goo.

He growled again and crawled towards Tamsin cautiously, the flesh on his right forearm gone. A friendship bracelet loosely hung around his waist bones, coated in blackened, thick fluid.

He hissed at Tamsin, before he pounced at her.

The blonde turned her torso, slamming her knee into the zombie's face, kicking his to the side. He fell, and growled furiously. He dashed towards her on all fours, but before he could touch her, Tamsin dodged to the right, and slashed her falchion at his neck.

She chopped his head off, and after twitching for a second or two, he stopped moving.

Tamsin cautiously approached the trailer again. She quietly entered it through the door, tightly holding her weapon.

In the trailer, she saw three zombies lying on the floor, all with their heads smashed. Behind them, there was a brunette lying. She had a baseball bat in her right hand, and was covered in zombie goo. Fresh blood painted the lower part of her gray tank top scarlet, and she had her eyes closed. She wasn't moving at all.

As Tamsin approached her, she saw a fresh bite mark on her stomach. It was smaller than those she had usually seen, possible from the child zombie she had just killed.

"Sucks to be you," she murmured and reached to checked the brunette's pulse with her left hand. Her right hand hold her falchion up.

The moment her fingers touched the side of the woman's neck, the brunette gasped sharply and opened her eyes. She immediately held her bat up, about to swing it at Tamsin.

"Whoa, whoa, easy. The place where I came from, we don't greet people with baseball bats, okay?" Tamsin said as she grabbed the bat in her hand, forcing it to stop.

The brunette didn't find her joke funny, though. She just panted hard while struggling to pull her bat out from Tamsin's hand. Then she noticed the pain from her stomach. She lowered her head, looking at herself.

When she saw the bite marks on her lower abdomen, she trembled. She swallowed hard and raised to look at Tamsin again. Her lips quivered. She wanted to say something but unable to get a single word through the lump in her throat.

She lifted her tank top a little with her shaking hands, and got a clearer view of the blood oozing bite marks. Tears blurred her vision. She tried to wipe the blood off with her hand, but only made it messier.

"Here," Tamsin threw a clean towel she had just found in the cabinet inside the trailer. She took out a tube of antibiotic cream and threw it to the brunette too.

The other woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she wiped her wound clean. She handed the tube back to Tamsin, murmuring a "thanks" to her which sounded more like a whimper. She held the tube and opened the cap, but paused there, thinking there was no way in hell it would help her situation at all.

She eventually applied a thick layer of the cream on her wound, though, since the firm look in the blonde's eyes encouraged her to do so.

A brief moment of silence devoured both women. Tamsin was watching the brunette closely, feeling that the despair in her eyes was killing her. Like a thin strand of string it slowly strangled her heart. The brunette was staring at her injury, shaking.

Tamsin sat down, a few feet away from the brunette. She observed the brunette for a while, before she said, "so, have you heard of the stories of the Point One Percent?"

The brunette shook her head in reflex, too focused on her wound to listen.

"You know, when people get bitten by flesheaters, they turn," Tamsin continued, and the other woman immediately flinched at the word "turn".

The blonde sighed. She ran her thumb on the edge of her blade and went quiet for a while. Then she continued, "well, there are those who just won't turn. Immune to the damn zombie virus or whatever. That's how we call them. The Point One Percent."

Hope flashed in the brunette's brown eyes. She opened her mouth, wanting to ask Tamsin if that was true, but was too afraid to get a negative answer. She observed the blonde's face, looking for any signs that might indicate what she had just said was just a bad joke.

"Don't look so happy," Tamsin told her. "Even if you were the 0.1 percent, they can still eat you alive."

The woman merely managed a nod, before she bit back a groan. Then she pressed her hand on her wound and screamed "ah!"

She pressed her hand on her wound hard, unable to believe that such a small wound would give her so an excruciating pain.

She swallowed her second scream down, and bit her bottom lip hard. Throwing her head back, she scooted back to press her back against the couch. The pain was too much for her to bear, and she started to groan, yell and scream.

"That's your body deciding whether it like the idea of becoming a flesheater or not," Tamsin said calmly, though the painful tears in the brunette's eyes made her voice soft. She stood up and headed to the door. "Enjoy."

"Wait..." The brunette reached her left hand out at her, her voice trembling.

Tamsin rolled her eyes and turned to her. "What?"

She thought the brunette would beg her to help her, or at least beg her to stay with her, but the other woman just struggled to take a small photo out from her pocket.

"Please..." the brunette squeezed the word out, before she threw her head back and screamed again.

Tamsin frowned and took a glance. She saw two women in the photo, young, at most 18. She recognized one of them as the brunette in front of her. She had no idea who the other dark hair woman was.

"Please...need to...find her," the brunette pleaded again, her voice a slur. "She's-"

She stopped abruptly, losing control of her body all of a sudden. She lolled, falling down to the floor. Her body started to twitch, her limbs waving back and forth as if she was swimming on her back. Then her chest arched away from the floor hard, like someone was forcing her up with an invisible string.

After a few seconds, she stopped moving and fell back down to the floor with her eyes closed. If it wasn't for her shallow, weak breath, Tamsin would think that she was dead.

The blonde let out a deep sigh, torn between leaving and staying. She eventually sat back down, staring closely at the brunette.

* * *

Tamsin felt like she was floating in the darkness, her head pounding in pain. The reality and her nightmares were a scary blend, and for a very long time she couldn't tell if she was awake.

She pried her eyes open and struggled to sit up, but she was too weak to even prop herself on her elbows.

She lay back down, panting, realizing that she was soaked in sweat. She licked her lips. They were so dry that she could taste her own blood seeping through the cracks.

She felt herself burning, like she was in a furnace. And the next minute, she was freezing. She shivered hard, embracing herself, panting.

The hot and cold lasted forever. Every time she had her eyes open, she saw Acacia's face. Her vague, blurry face.

"Burning is good." Acacia's voice came to her, distant. "If you were to turn, you wouldn't be having a fever."

She felt a hand firmly but gently pressing on her forehead. It comforted her, and she sank into her nightmares again.

* * *

Tamsin opened her eyes, waking up to the bright moonlight and the groaning, squirming brunette.

The other woman's gray tank top had been ruffled up during her struggles, revealing those hideous bite marks. They looked like tiny black holes under the moonlight, however Tamsin was relieved to find a light purplish pink edging the wounds.

With another groan, the brunette opened her eyes a little. She swallowed hard and turned to Tamsin, her lips moving but no words coming out from them. She panted as she wrapped her arms around her own body in cold shivers.

"Burning is good." Tamsin told her in a soft voice. Maybe too soft for her liking. "If you were to turn, you wouldn't be having a fever."

The brunette looked a little surprised, and confused. Tamsin just gave her a bitter smile.

The other woman squirmed again for a few seconds, and then she passed out again.

The brunette eventually woke up to the bright sun, feeling drained. She struggled to feel her own heartbeat, and was both thrilled and relieved that it was still there.

Slowly she raised herself on her elbows, then she sat up and checked her injury.

It had stopped bleeding. The edge of the bite marks had turned into a purplish pink color. She started to panic again, for the color was too weird for a healing wound.

"Congratulations," the blonde's voice came to her, though it was too bland. "You got a fuchsia mark."

The brunette looked at her confused, wanting to ask her what it was but too weak to actually say her words.

"For someone who doesn't know shit about the dominant race that currently rules this planet, it's fascinating that you've last this long," Tamsin commented. She then threw the brunette a bottle of water. The other woman couldn't catch it and the water hit the floor.

The brunette leaned forward slowly, reaching for the bottle. Eventually she was able to roll it towards herself and pick it up. She tried a few times, before she finally opened it and started to drink. The water seemed to have energized her enough, and she asked with a husky, low voice. "Fuchsia mark?"

Tamsin shrugged. "You know, one of the fancy names people have given to zombie bite marks. If it turns fuchsia, you are fine. If it turns pale, you'll turn."

The brunette nodded. She tilted her head back slightly while slowly raising the end of the water bottle, letting the cool liquid run down her throat. After she finished the whole bottle, she put the cap back and fastened it.

She leaned to her side, putting half of her weight on her left hand while searching for a trash can. When she heard a light scoff from the blonde, she huffed out a light laugh at herself too. Who would care if she didn't threw the bottle into a trash can or not right now?

She placed the empty bottle a few inches away from her, and shifted into a more comfortable sitting position. After staring at the blonde for a while, she asked, "where are you heading to?"

"Somewhere too dangerous for someone like you?" Tamsin murmured while checking every locker and drawer inside the trailer for anything useful.

"I'm Bo," the brunette introduced herself as she withdrew her legs and tried to stand up. Slowly she straightened her body, with her right elbow pressing against the small table beside her.

"And I'm leaving," Tamsin said, zipping her backpack after finding nothing that would interest her.

The brunette, Bo, seemed to be too busy keeping herself on her legs to feel offended. She let out a few vague groans and she forced herself to stand straight. "I'm...heading to Creeksville."

Her destination surprised Tamsin. "Creeksville? Seriously?"

The brunette nodded. "Hey," she said with a gentle smile on her face. "If you are heading to the same direction or something, we can team up and-"

"No, thanks. I don't do team-ups," Tamsin interrupted her. "And bye."

"Hey! What's your name?"

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "Tamsin."

With that, she left the trailer, leaving the frowning, weak brunette behind.

* * *

 **A/N: So now Bo is immune to zombies bites (Tamsin is too), which I think is reasonable for the human race to have a small portion of the population immune to the zombies. And this would make things more interesting. I will introduce more about the current world, Tamsin's past, Bo's past, the dark hair girl in the photo (who everyone should know who she is by now lol).**

 **I probably will introduce more LG characters into the story later on. xxoo**


	3. Chapter 3 - The Other Flesheaters

**Chapter 3 - The Other Flesheaters**

Walking exhausted Tamsin; the summer weather made her feel like she was trapped in a huge steamer. When she saw a small pond not too far away from the creek she had been following along, she decided to stop there for a break.

The pond had a very small dock, possibly for people who have lived in the house behind it to fish.

Getting down on one knee beside the pond, Tamsin looked around.

Several houses scattered on the fields a quarter mile away from her maybe, all old and very much worn out. On their porches there were chairs and died pot plants. One of them had a big chime hanging, but with it windcatcher gone, it wouldn't make any sound.

The houses were surrounded by miles of empty crop fields with greeds growing tall. A few of them though, had crops. One had corn, with long tassels on top of the plants. The one next to it had cotton with white, puffy bolls that could be harvested in days. The third one had some green things but she couldn't tell what it was from afar. She thought that it might be some sort of squash.

It was obvious that someone had been growing things here, possible living nearby, but that didn't interest her at all. She shrugged and cupped some water from the pond, ready to spray on her sweaty face. Before she did though, she heard something coming towards her.

She immediately ducked behind the bushes and pulled out her falchion, waiting.

The sound got louder and louder, and after a couple of minutes, a big tricycle appeared at the end of the dirt road she had been on. It had a large trailer made with bolted wood panels and metal bars hooked to its tail.

A man was riding the tricycle. His clothes were shabby, like it was made by some amatuer tailor from scratch. He had a baseball hat on; it was too soiled for Tamsin to see its color. A crossbow hung on his back, and a quiver of arrows hung on his belt.

He was humming some song while riding. Every time he pushed the pedals down, the chain connected the axis of the wheels would squeak. The squeaks got louder and louder, and he eventually stopped, only a few yards away from Tamsin.

He got off the tricycle, and Tamsin held her breath and lowered her body.

The man seemed to have not noticed her presence. He just got off the vehicle and bent down to fix the noise. After some fist banging and foot slamming, the squeaky noise disappeared. He got on the tricycle again and rode slowly uphill, towards the cotton fields.

Tamsin let out a deep breath, but she didn't come out from behind the bushes. She just waited quietly for him to go away for she had no intention to interact with someone else.

The tricycle took a sharp turn, exposing the trailer to her. A woman sitting on one side, a baseball bat in her hand. She, too, had shabby clothes like the guy riding in the front. Several dirty woven bags surrounded her, all full. Tamsin couldn't see the content in them at all, except one had a shoulder strap of some bag hanging out to its side, decorated with something blue.

On the other side there was a woman lying. Her body jolted slightly along the trailer. Tamsin couldn't see her face.

She didn't really care anyway. What did those people have anything to do with her?

Tamsin turned around to the pond. Before she reached down, she paused.

 _A baseball bat._ She thought, and the picture of the woman lying in the trailer immediately entered her mind. The baseball bat had triggered some of her memories, which reminded her that the clothes of the woman lying in the trailer were surprisingly familiar.

Then it was the shoulder strap of the backpack. There had been something blue tied to it. Could it be a blue bowtie, the one she had seen several nights ago?

A backpack with one of its shoulder straps decorated with a blue bowtie. Maybe it was pure decoration, or it could make a regular backpack looking distinct among other bags. Whatever its purpose would be, it belonged to the woman she had rescued in the motorhome several days ago.

Bo. That was her name.

Tamsin rolled her eyes for remembering some stranger's name. Then she narrowed her eyes and stared at the tricycle.

The vehicle had stopped in front of the house right behind the crop fields. The man got down, then the sitting woman. They carried the third person into the house.

 _Maybe she was injured. They found her and decided to take her home and take care of her?_ She asked herself, and it was then she had realized that she was deeply concerned about the brunette's well being.

She shook her head, telling herself that she should leave. It was none of her business anyway.

However, before she have moved, Acacia's voice came to her vividly.

 _Always watch out for the zombies, Tamsin, but watch out more for humans. Sometimes they are a much, much bigger threat to you than the flesheaters. They are not just after your flesh. They are after everything._

Tamsin closed her eyes and sighed in frustration. She eventually took down her backpack and took out a revolver. She stared at the empty cylinder for a second or two, before she loaded it with the three bullets she had found in the dead body's gun the other day.

She took a deep breath, before she headed to the house quietly. All she needed was a glimpse of the inside through the windows. If everything was fine, she would leave in no time.

* * *

Tamsin circled around the wood spikes and barb wires that were used to keep zombies away, and entered the corn fields. She hid herself behind the tall stems until she was very close to the front gate of the house. Quickly moving herself into the shades of the trees on the side, she scanned the surroundings.

Her eyes fell on the gate first. It was closed and rusty as the fence which enclosed the house. She could see the front yard through the metal bars. There was nothing in there except a dog house. A broken collar was tossed outside, and a huge patch of dark stains was in front it. There was something small and pale in the middle of the stain, looking like a piece of bone or something. It was accompanied with a small cluster of dirty fur.

Tamsin decided not to think about what the stain was or where the bone and bur came from. She glanced at the house and saw the closed door.

She made sure that nobody saw her, before she moved to the other corner of the fence to check the tricycle which had been locked to the fence with a rusty chain lock.

She crouched down behind the trailer, and examined it. It was beyond filthy. The floor was covered in brown or maroon stains. In the center there was several spots of red liquid.

She carefully dipped her finger in one of them and smelled it. It was fresh blood.

 _So she was probably injure_. She thought, but couldn't convince herself that those two people took Bo in because of that. Had she been injured to the point that someone had to carry her in, there would have been much more blood in the trailer.

Walking back to the front gate in stealth, Tamsin quickly reached to its behind and unlatched it.

Slowly nudging the gate open, she made sure that none of the hinges were making any noise. After there was enough space for her to go through, she stopped pushing the gate and stepped in.

As she approached the house, she noticed a nasty smell in the air. _What is that?_ She wondered, covering her nose with the front end of her right sleeve.

She stood beside the front door, and pressed her ear to the narrow space between the door and its frame.

She could hear two people having a conversation inside, one female and one male. She couldn't hear a word of it.

Slowly and vigilantly, she moved along the walls of the outside of the house to the back. The closer she got to the backyard, the stronger that nasty smell became.

The moment she entered the backyard, she slammed her empty hand to her own mouth to stop herself from making any sound.

She figured out the source of the disgusting smell. It had been coming from a pile of heads in the far corner of the backyard. A pile of human heads, surrounded by buzzing flies, with bones scattered under them.

There must be dozens of them, carelessly tossed to the corner. Some of them had been so decomposed that there was little to no tissues attached to the skull. Others still had quite a bit flesh on, but the faces had either been cut or ripped to the point that Tamsin couldn't really see what they had looked like when those people had been alive.

Their hollow, dark eye sockets stared back at her, chilling her spine. The smell in the hot air made her feel sick. During the past ten years of chaos, she had seen a lot of horrible things, but this definitely was one of the worst.

Tamsin swallowed hard and forced herself to move. She slowly approached the back door. It wasn't locked, so she squeezed in.

The room behind the door was some sort of bonus room. There were two chairs under the window and a display case against the wall with porcelain sets, glass statuettes and dolls inside.

Tamsin headed to the room adjacent to this one. She had just laid one foot in the other room, a series of giggles came to her from behind.

Her heart had almost stopped, and she swung back with her gun pointing to the direction of the sound, but soon she realized that it was one of the vintages dolls that was on top of the display case.

"I love you. I love you," the doll repeated in a bland tone, which sounded extremely creepy right now. She had one eye blinking, but the other one seemed to have been stuck in the middle.

Tamsin hid herself in the corner, afraid that the doll's voice would draw attention from someone else in the house. However, nobody seemed to have noticed it, and after a while, the doll got quiet.

The conversation between the two people went on, and Tamsin walked towards it in great caution.

When she saw two figures standing in the kitchen counter, she quickly hid behind the couch in the living room and listened.

"This is the last time. Breasts are sure mine," the female voice came to her. It sounded a little agitated, definitely not Bo's soft voice.

"No, Mary. You can only have one. The other one is mine," the male voice answered her.

"Both of them are mine, George," the woman, Mary, hissed. "I spotted her first. I lured her into our trap. I should get the first pick.

"There ain't no first pick anymore, sweetheart. We split her half and half. Not a finger less, not a finger more," the man said firmly. He paused for a while, before he added, "I'll let you drink the first glass of blood, okay?"

The woman mumbled something too lower for Tamsin to hear, but she seemed to have agreed with George's proposal.

"Pull the grindstone over to me, will ya?" George pleaded.

Tamsin heard something heavy getting moved across the floor in the kitchen. Then, there was the sound of the grindstone sharpening a blade.

She couldn't help but peek out from the side of the couch. George was sitting on a chair, sharpening the blade, his head lowered and a set of butcher tools under his foot, including a bone saw. His crossbow was placed on the table right next to him. Mary was looking for something in the cabinets, her back facing Tamsin.

Tamsin frowned at the scene, because she saw no Bo nor other "she" in the kitchen. All she saw was a big room, two people busy doing their things, and a drawn curtain on the side. Above the drape, she could see a hook attached to the ceiling and ropes tied to it, but whatever below it was concealed.

Tamsin pressed her hand on the floor and moved out from the couch more, wondering if she should stay for more conversation, or go in now.

Before she had made a decision, Mary straightened her body with a big container in her hands. She put it down beside the drape, and pulled it open, revealing an unconscious, tied up and hung upside down Bo behind it.

Tamsin clenched her teeth, not to make a single sound. She moved back behind the couch, her heart pounding so loudly that she was afraid that one of them might hear it. She took a few deep breaths, before she slowly peeked out again while holding her gun tightly.

Mary picked up a knife. When she raised it and moved it towards Bo, Tamsin almost jumped out. However, the woman just cut the rope that was binding Bo's wrists together.

Tamsin frowned at that move, before she saw Mary pulling Bo's arms open and let them fall. Then, the woman put the container right under the brunette's head, for catching her blood later.

George was still sharpening his blade, and Mary bent down to grab the brunette's left hand. She raised her knife again, mumbling "let me cut off one finger and taste it first."

Tamsin knew either she make a move right now, or the brunette would lose a finger permanently. She jumped out from behind the couch and yelled, "hey, you freaks!"

George reacted quickly, throwing his blade away before yanking the crossbow to point at Tamsin. "Intruder!" He yelled as he fired the arrow.

Tamsin dodged to the side, before she saw Mary take out a shotgun and load it. Knowing that it would definitely kill her once it was fired, she rolled on her knee, pointed her revolver at Mary and pulled the trigger.

The bullet went right through the woman's forehead, making her head throw back abruptly. Mary's finger jolted, and the shotgun was fired, but since her entire body was tilting backwards, it went towards the roof.

With a deafening sound, a hole appeared in the roof. Shattered ceiling pieces fell between Tamsin and George. After both pausing for a split second, George went for the dropped shotgun.

He got it, but before he had it properly aim at Tamsin, the blonde managed to put a bullet in his right shoulder. He struggled to keep the gun in his hands. Cursing slangs were fired out from his mouth, one after another, some of which Tamsin had never heard of.

She really didn't have time to pay attention to them anyway. She dashed towards him and grabbed the shotgun. They battled with it, but Tamsin eventually pulled it out from the man's hand, and swung it at him. A hard blow with its butt, he was knocked out.

Tamsin had finally let out the breath she had been holding for so long. She swallowed her pounding heart back, and checked on Mary first. The woman was for sure dead.

Tamsin tied the unconscious man to the window bar with a rope she found on the floor. Then she quickly checked the others rooms of the house, and made sure there were no further threats. There were some supplies that she was interested in, but she knew she didn't have that much space in her backpack to hold them. So, she just took a box of shotgun rounds.

She came back to the kitchen again to untie Bo. Carrying the brunette on her shoulder, she grabbed the shotgun before she left.

"You heavy little pig," she murmured to the brunette as she walked through the front door, grabbing Bo's backpack on the way out. She headed to the tricycle, and threw the shotgun into it. Then, she bent forward a little, slowly putting Bo on the trailer and shifting her into a sitting position, before laying her down on the floor of the trailer.

She tilted her head and rubbed the side of her neck, before she picked up a rock and smashed the chain lock. She hop on the tricycle and rode away.

* * *

Overwhelmed by pain and tiresome, Bo used every bit of her strength to hold on to the only consciousness she had left. She tumbled in the endless tunnel of darkness, unable to breathe, move or speak. After what seemed to be eternity, she finally managed to pry her eyes open.

She pressed her hand on her bite wound, only to realize that the pain wasn't coming from there.

She groaned again, her throat burning. She tried to say something but her voice bubbled through her throat and became a series of meaningless murmur.

She arched her waist, shifting her body to roll on her side. A fluctuating, bright thing entered her vision as rolling heat greeted her.

After squinting her eyes for a few times, she eventually realized that it was a small cooking fire.

The soft crackles comforted her. She sprawled, panting while staring at the night sky.

 _Who lit the fire?_ She asked herself after a while, propping herself on her left elbow again. She narrowed her eyes and searched, until she saw the silhouette of a female figure across the fire.

"Kenzi…?" Bo blurted, yet immediately realized that she was wrong since the woman had blonde hair and was much taller than Kenzi.

"Wrong name," The blonde scoffed without looking at Bo.

Bo huffed out an embarrassed laugh, and eyed her closely. "Hey, it's you!" She beamed after she recognized her face. "T-Tamsin, right?"

Before the blonde had replied, Bo gasped because a spot on the back of her head suddenly pulsed in pain. She reached her hand to it, touching partially dried blood. She lowered her head while running her fingers on the edge of the bloody bump, carefully not to hurt herself. "Did I fall or something?"

Tamsin raised to look at her, her eyebrows furrowed. " _Did I fall or something_ ," she mimicked Bo's curious, soft voice. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I-" Bo murmured as she tried to recall what had happened to her. She had left the motorhome a few days ago, after the blonde had left. She had walked along the interstate, towards Creeksville. The weather had been unbearable, but she hadn't stop. Then, before the dawn this morning, she had taken a break on the side of the road. Someone had come to her.

"There was this woman," Bo murmured, scooting further away from the heat of the fire and closer to the blonde. "Old, well not too old, in her forties maybe? She came to me, asking for help and-"

"Let me guess," Tamsin interrupted her with a smirk on her face. "You were really that naive to believe her."

"Well..." Bo argued. "She looked like that she really needed help so...I followed her through the exit, and saw a big tricycle with a trailer in one of those abandoned gas stations. Then...we walked towards it, and...something hit the back of my head I guess..." She frowned for a while, before she asked, "did she hit me? She was the one who hit me, right?"

Tamsin shrugged. "How the hell do I know? I wasn't there. I didn't see shit, but hey, let's just say it was her, okay?"

"Why did she hit me?" Bo murmured. After realizing that she didn't remember anything after that, she asked Tamsin, "what happened?"

"Well, her partner and her dragged you back to their house and prepared to cook you. I convinced them that you wouldn't taste really good, so," Tamsin said, shrugging, "so, they let you go."

"What do you mean by _cook me_?" Bo asked, confused.

"Oh you know, they'd hang you upside down, and cut here-" Tamsin quickly brushed her index finger across her neck, "-and here-" she moved her finger along the length of her body. "After you blood is drained. They'd make some premium cuts out of you and-"

"That's insane!" Bo cut her off, jolting up. "And gross!" She added.

"I bet they wouldn't think that when they cook you medium well and munch you," Tamsin commented, making a teasing yummy noise before getting slapped by the brunette on her shoulder.

"They really wanted to eat me? They eat humans?!" Bo asked, unable to believe it.

"What, like you are really surprised," Tamsin mumbled. After realizing that the surprised look on Bo's face was truly genuine, she paused. "You've never heard stories about the crazies out there who slaughter and eat humans?"

"Of course I did, but I thought it was just...urban legends, you know, like sewer alligators or...or Slender Man," Bo said. "I didn't know they exist, because that's insane!"

"Well, cannibals have been walking among us for a very long time, sweetheart. And they sure have found their place in this damn apocalypse," Tamsin said.

Bo nodded. "Thanks," she told Tamsin. "For saving my life."

Tamsin shrugged. "Do you know why I saved you from them?"

Bo shook her head, too shocked by the fact that she had almost died to ponder the blonde's true purpose.

Tamsin leaned in, her eyes hiding in shadows. "Now I can have you all by myself," she whispered, her voice low.

Bo huffed out a giggle and rolled her eyes. After her giggles died in the air, silence devoured them. She lay there staring blankly at the fire while the blonde was reading the map, organizing things or getting water from the creek behind them.

After Tamsin came back with a mug of water, she boiled it on the fire. She added some thin twigs into it, before she asked, "where are you from?"

Feeling a little surprised that the blonde would be interested in that, Bo answered, "the ummm...the 4th settlement of New America."

"That's down in Mexico," Tamsin said, turning to Bo surprised, the reflection of the flames burning in her light eyes. "Why do you come all the way up here to Creeksville?"

"I'm looking for someone," Bo replied as she watched the water bubble.

"A bounty hunter huh?" Tamsin murmured as she crushed some hard tack with the butt of her falchion. She threw the crumbs into the boiling water and stirred it with a spoon. "You sure as hell sucks as a bounty hunter, sweetheart."

Bo rolled her eyes. "I'm looking for a friend of mine in Creeksville," she said.

Tamsin paused and huffed out a light laugh. "Whoever you are looking for is dead."

"She's not dead."

"Of course she's not, if you consider zombies as something _alive_ ," Tamsin drawled as she handed Bo the mug of mush.

Bo took over the mug and quickly scooped out a spoonful of food. The moment she shoved it into her mouth, she yelled "hot hot hot" with rapid pants, her tongue sticking out.

Tamsin couldn't help but burst into laughter. The brunette kicked her shin playfully, before she went back to eat.

"She's not dead," she slurred as she blew on her food in the spoon to cool it down.

Tamsin huffed. "Do you know that Creeksville is already a ghost town? I mean, humans have either left, been turned or been eaten. Even the zombies have migrated somewhere else because there are no _raw steaks_ for them anymore. "

Bo put the mug down to let it cool. "I know," she said, "but I also know that she's there, and she's alive."

"Well, good luck then. I'm sure you'll find her in one piece," Tamsin said to Bo in a sarcastic tone.

"You don't even want to know why I'm so sure that she's alive, or who she is?"

"Do I look like I care?" The blonde replied with a smirk. To avoid further conversation, she leaned against a tree and closed her eyes.

Bo shook her head, before she devoured the mush. She felt drained, so she lay down. She fell asleep in seconds.


	4. Chapter 4 - Night Chat

**Chapter 4 - Night Chat**

Hearing someone, or something, passing through the woods, Tamsin pressed her hand on the hilt of her falchion and dodged to the side vigilantly. When she noticed that it was moving much faster and making more noises than any zombies or animals, though, she rolled her eyes and leaned against a tree.

Seconds later, Bo stumbled out. She wiped one leaf off her head with her right forearm, and then bent to her side to pick the burs of cocklebur off the lower part of her pants. She tossed them to the side and prepared to continue her journey, until she met Tamsin's raised eyebrows.

"Hey!" The brunette exclaimed excitedly after pausing for a split second. "I thought you left and I was looking for you!"

"I did, and you shouldn't have," Tamsin hissed as she started to walk. When she noticed that Bo was walking along with her, only a few feet behind, she stopped. "Why are you following me, hmm?"

"I am not," Bo said. She took out a bottle of water from her backpack, and downed it. "I mean...I am heading to Creeksville, but the interstate is blocked by millions of old cars. Apparently this is the only way for me to go and-" She stopped abruptly, staring at Tamsin while something occurred to her. "Hey, are you going to Creeks-"

"No I'm not, and stop following me," Tamsin said as she increased her speed.

"Yes, you are! Otherwise you wouldn't be on the same road with me!" Bo blurted, rushing to catch up with the blonde. "Why didn't you tell me that we were heading to the same place?!"

"Why should I?" Tamsin retorted, but reluctantly stopped to wait for Bo to catch up.

"If you had told me, we could have teamed up and-"

"I've already told you, sweetheart. I don't do team ups, period."

"Why not?" Bo argued, panting. "It's safer to stay together than travelling alone because, ya know, zombies took over the world and they are-"

"-dangerous?" Tamsin cut her off with a scoff. She turned to Bo and smirked. "Believe me, sweetheart, zombies are not what I worry about."

"What do you worry about then?"

"You really want to know?" Tamsin asked, her head tilting to the side slightly.

"Of course," Bo said, nodding.

"Okay, here's the thing I really do worry about. If you follow me long enough, you are gonna eat and drink everything I have."

Bo couldn't help but huff out a chuckle. "I'm not a parasite, Tamsin. I can hunt, fish, and gather. I know how to collect water and take care of myself."

"Wow, really?" Tamsin asked. "Then why did I have to save your cute little ass from a tiny child zombie and two crazies?"

"I-I was looking for anything useful in those empty trailers and...I guess I let my guard down when they attacked me. And the crazies...I mean, who would have expected that there were humans out there who would eat humans?"

"Smart people, like me, would," Tamsin smirked.

"I thought cannibals are only in...horror stories," Bo complained.

"Well, ten years ago, zombies are only in horror stories," Tamsin said, "but hey, look around you now."

Bo barely managed an eye roll, before she stopped walking. She sat down and leaned against a tree. "Can we take five?"

Tamsin growled in frustration and stopped. _Whatever_ , she thought, _I could use some water_.

Bo let out a deep breath and raised to look at the sky. "Who would have believed all this..." she murmured. "Ten years ago, when I first heard about the outbreaks, I thought it was just...some dumb kids making up stories online again, ya know..."

Tamsin squeezed a scoff through her nose while gulping her water.

"I mean," Bo continued. "All the media were saying that it was a sick prank...I remember the guy from the local morning news. He was like... _zombie outbreak? Please! What's next? Little green men visiting our planet? Witches flying with brooms outside your window?_ "

Tamsin shook her head. "Right, everyone should just trust the media because they always tell the truth and nothing but the truth."

"What else should I have believed then?" Bo argued. "People turning into zombies and eating other people?"

Tamsin sighed and put the cap back to her bottle. She threw it back into her bag, and murmured, "enough good ole' days, sweetheart. Let's get moving."

Bo immediately stood up and got her things together. "Hey, why are you going to Creeksville? Are you looking for someone too?"

"Yeah, totally, I'm just that desperate, looking for someone in a ghost town once conquered by walkers," Tamsin scoffed.

"Then why are you going to Creeksville? Are you...studying zombies or something?"

"Do I look like someone who would do that?" Tamsin countered. She paused for a while, before she added, "whatever, I guess I could tell you since you are too stupid to be in my way anyway."

"Okay?" Bo stared at the blonde with a grin while ignoring Tamsin's bitchy comment.

"I'm looking for _something_ in Creeksville."

"What are you looking for? Ten year old trash stomped by millions of zombies?" Bo teased.

Tamsin shot her a cold stare. "Do you even know why Creeksville is such an important place?"

"Of course I do. It's one of the zombie outbreak origins," Bo said.

"That's right. It's one of the many cities where the first batch of humans were turned mysteriously by that fucking zombie virus, and started to attack the healthy humans. That makes it important because…?"

"It's significant in history?"

"Ugh huh, like anybody still cares about that textbook shit," Tamsin said, her head dropping in frustration. "It's one of the first cities where zombies appeared, a lot of scientists, medical professionals and government employees stationed there and studied them. There were hospital records, epidemic experts' journals, and records of where and when and how the very first zombies appeared. "

"But, why would you be looking for those things?" Bo asked, frowning.

Tamsin threw her hands in the air in frustration. "You do know that some stubborn scientists haven't given up on hope right? They still want to figure out a way to defeat them."

"I won't be surprised if there are still people like that."

"Anyway," Tamsin continued. "There are those, and they want records of the zombies that they could study. For me, the more important thing is that they are willing to pay a fortune for them."

"Oh, okay," Bo nodded. "So you are a bounty hunter who is searching for records about zombies. Got it. Well, I hope the things that you are looking for haven't been chewed and swallowed by the zombies then."

Tamsin pushed a "pfft" sound through her throat. "Can you stop asking questions now?"

"Wait, I have this one last question. Where are you from?"

"Why should I tell you and why can't we skip this stupid smalltalk session?"

"Why can't you answer my question without making snarky comments?"

"Whatever," Tamsin grunted.

"So which settlement are you from, Tamsin?"

"Do I look like I live in one of those government aided, crowded settlement with who knows what shady business behind them?"

"They are not as crowded as you think, Tamsin. There isn't shady business behind them either," Bo protested, finding the blonde's comments funny.

"Really? Then tell me, why are they handing over free stuff to everyone? What do they get out of it? Tax relief? Besides, the real governments had falled years ago, under what department and whose order are these settlements operating?"

"It's the new, without border settlement organization that is running them, Tamsin," Bo explained. "They are just trying to get everyone to stick together, you know. There aren't many people left, after the zombies, epidemic outbreaks, wars and everything. Sticking together is the only way to survive."

"Blah, blah, blah," Tamsin murmured. "I am with nobody and I still make it alright."

"Or maybe you could be better if you were living with the others."

"Ugh huh." Tamsin rolled her eyes. "Walk faster. If you can't catch up, I'm not gonna wait for you."

* * *

Hours later, they took a break near the creek they had been following along. Bo took out a sealed bag, which was decorated by a printed green symbol consisting a tree, a bird and a human, from her bag. She opened it and devoured the small chunks of pita-like bread in it, while Tamsin ate her peanut butter and cracker for her snack.

The blonde took her time to eat, and drink, before she noticed that the brunette was looking at her with a weird look.

"If you are begging for food, sorry, no extra," Tamsin said as she licked the remaining peanut butter off her fingers.

"No," Bo murmured. "If-if you don't mind, could you watch out for me for-I'd like to wash myself for a bit cuz..."

Tamsin took in the blood stains on the brunette's dirt and sweat streaked clothes, as well as the dry blood on her messy hair. She sighed, before she gave Bo a brief nod. When she noticed that Bo wasn't moving, she raised and asked, "what? Need someone to scrub your back or something?"

Bo chuckled and shook her head. "Thank you," she said, nothing but sincerity in her voice.

"Just go, I'll make sure that no zombie shall bite your cute little ass," Tamsin slurred while drinking her water.

Bo nodded and headed to the creek, while Tamsin watched her walking away.

Tamsin sighed and turned back once Bo was behind the bushes taking off her clothes. She wondered why she had let the brunette travel with her. Maybe travelling alone was too unbearable after weeks of walking in the late summer weather, and bickering with Bo was a fun she couldn't miss. Maybe she had felt some sort of responsibility falling on her shoulder the moment she saved the brunette's life. Or maybe, there was something else?

Refusing to ponder that question, Tamsin yelled, "make sure you scream when you see zombies, okay?"

Bo answered her with a loud "Mhm", and it somehow made Tamsin chuckle.

* * *

Bo took off her boots and put them under a tree on the side of the creek. Then, she took off her pants and threw it into the water. Pulling her tank top off, she threw it into the water as well.

She paused before she unlatched her bra hook. After years of bathing in the wild, she would still become self conscious whenever she needed to take off her underwear and expose her naked body outside.

She immersed herself into the water first, before she quickly took off her bra and panties and put them with her clothes pile under water. She squeezed them with the bottom of her feet gently, letting the fresh water wash away the dirt, blood and sweat while washing herself.

She sprayed the cool water to the back of her head and rinse off the dried blood first. She watched the pink stream run down along her body, before she kneeled down and washed her body.

She cleaned her clothes as much as possible, before she took them out and wrung them dry. She then hung them on a tree branch above.

Sitting down in the cool water against a rock, Bo drew her knees to her chest and put her arms around her shins. She buried her face into her knees and took a deep breath.

She was shaking in fear when she thought the fact that she had almost been eaten by some crazies occurred to her. She thought that that sort of things only existed in horror movies which she had watched with her friends while eating popcorns and drinking soda. However, it did almost happen to her, and she wouldn't have made it if Tamsin hadn't saved her. Once again, she made out fine, in one piece, and still breathing.

For how long, though? How long would it take before she was alone again? How long would it take before something would chomp her, and eat her alive?

A crunch of crispy twigs pulled her out from her train of thoughts. She immediately stood up and searched for her weapon. It didn't take her long to realize that she had lost her baseball bat to those cannibals when they had caught her. She cursed and rushed to the bank, splashing water everywhere.

Tamsin appeared in front of her with her unsheathed falchion in her right hand. Bo was immediately dragged out from the water, into the blonde's arms and then behind the bushes.

"What? More cannibals?" Bo whispered, ducking her head as low as she could. She peeked at the other side of the creek through the bush branches but couldn't see anything other than the moving leaves among the trees and bushes there. It appeared to her that someone was walking through the woods.

"No, a bunch of flesheasters are heading this way," Tamsin told her in a voice so low that it was barely audible.

"Really? How do you know that?"

"You can't smell that?" Tamsin asked in a whisper, her eyes narrowed at the brunette.

"Should I be able to?" Bo whispered in a hiss, before she turned to stare at the other side again. This time she was able to see something behind the plants, occasionally a corner of crude clothing or a limb covered in old skin lesions.

In a short while, the noise of a group pushing through the woods became louder and louder, and eventually, several zombies tottered out.

They stopped, growled, and looked around, their attention caught by the running water.

One of them was distracted by the reflection of himself. He crouched down and hurled his arm at it, until he realized that it wasn't a real person. He grunted in disappointment as he stood up.

They were about to leave, before a female zombie noticed Bo's hanging clothes. She sniffed excitedly and stepped into the water.

The others joined her, wading towards Bo and Tamsin.

"This is your fault!" Tamsin hissed at Bo. She tried to come up with a combat strategy, but was interrupted by more zombies appearing on the other side of the creek. They staggered out from behind the trees, one after another, before they followed the female zombie into the water and headed over to Tamsin's side.

"Alright, time for plan B," Tamsin told Bo as she grabbed the lower side of Bo's hanging clothes and pulled them off. She shoved them to Bo and took a glance at the slowly moving herd of dozens of zombies. "We run, and this time I definitely will not wait for you!"

Bo tried to put her clothes on, but was so distracted that at some point she tried to squeeze both feet through the same side. She knew she probably should make a decision right now, whether to run away without clothes, or to get devoured with her body properly covered. She almost laughed at herself for having to make a decision. Would anyone really care if her nipples were showing while a big group of zombies were heading towards her?

Bo was about to run without her clothes, before Tamsin dragged her back and shoved her down behind the bushes. The blonde held her from behind with one arm around her waist, and covered her mouth with the other hand.

Bo froze, wondering what had happened. She carefully looked through the bushes in front of her, and saw a person appear on the other side of the creek. She could see their face because it was hidden under the hoodie of their jacket, but she could tell that they must be muscular from the bulky figure.

That person made a whistle like sound, and the herd stopped. They all turned around and looked at them. That person slowly walked away and disappeared behind the trees.

The herd followed, leaving the water and getting back to the other side. They eventually disappeared too, leaving the rotten smell behind.

Tamsin and Bo held their breath until the herd were far gone. The two women stood up and moved back to where they had left their backpacks.

Tamsin started to gather and pack her things, and Bo putting her pants on while silently thanking all the deities she had ever known for letting her survive again.

After zipping and buttoning her pants, Bo asked, "what was that? That...that whoever it was who got the zombies away from us?"

"How the hell would I know?" Tamsin replied, organizing her backpack.

"Is that person in danger?" Bo asked. "I mean, there were 20 something zombies and that person just-they followed them."

"I don't know, and I don't give a fuck," Tamsin said, a smirk on her face. Afraid that Bo would go find out, she added, "it's not your business either. If someone wants to be with the zombies, they are totally allowed to be with them, okay?"

"You think that was a human?" Bo frowned.

"Human or not, I don't care," Tamsin said, shrugging. "You wanna play detective, be my guest."

Bo shook her head. "I have to find Kenzi first."

"So...Kenzi is the one you are looking for in Creeksville, huh?" Tamsin asked, immediately hating herself for being interested in that.

"Yeah," Bo said. "She's in Creeksville, and...I'm looking for her. She's basically my sister."

"Basically?"

"We are not related. We grew up together and she's my closest friend," Bo stopped when she realized that Tamsin had a weird look on her face. "What?"

Tamsin pointed at Bo's chest with her chin, before she turned away.

Bo looked down and realized that she had been too busy talking to put on her bra or her tank top. She chuckled and quickly threw them on.

"Did my breasts make you uncomfortable?" She teased, finding a slightly blushed Tamsin hilarious.

"Nope," Tamsin replied as she put her backpack on and started to walk. "I just don't want to hear you whining about 200 mosquito bites on your chest two hours later."

* * *

They arrived at a small town outside Creeksville after midnight. Although Tamsin had planned to continue traveling at night since it was much cooler than the day, she decided to stop when she found out that Bo was beyond exhausted.

They checked the supermarket on the main street, and a few small stores, but found nothing useful.

They walked along the main street, and eventually decided to camp outside the town hall building since it was cleaner than all the other places they had been.

Tamsin built a fire pit with bricks and rocks she found nearby, while Bo collected wood panels from the windows and doors. They smashed them until they broke into smaller pieces that were great for lighting a cooking fire.

After cooking their dinner, Tamsin went to pick some fresh tree branches with leaves on, and threw them into the fire to create smokes to keep the bugs away.

Bo shoved the debris on the ground away with her foot, before she laid down her sleeping bag. She glanced at the flag whose color had faded, and the abandoned car and tents in the parking lot, her heart seized again by the fact that the world has ended and the majority of humans raced had died. It somehow made her hate the moon in the night sky. It was as bright as ten years ago, as if it wasn't aware of what had happened at all.

She sat down on her sleeping bag, tapping her feet on the ground while watching the blonde laying down her sleeping bag. "Tamsin," she called. "Seriously, which settlement are you from?"

"Why do you want to know so badly?" The blonde stopped in frustration.

"It's nice to know a few things about the person you travel with, you know," Bo explained. "Or...is there some reason you won't share?"

Tamsin sighed. "I'm not from any government settlement, okay?"

"So, you are a lone wolf?"

"More like someone who is smart enough not to stay in any government aided shit," Tamsin grunted. She let out a deep sigh, and decided to give up. "Have you ever heard of a place name Brazenwood?"

"Brazenwood? You mean that community crammed with outlaws, criminals and-" Bo almost bit her tongue when she saw the blonde's teasing gaze and raised eyebrows.

"I-I didn't mean..." Bo mumbled. "I mean...from what I've heard, Brazenwood isn't exactly-"

"-safe? Normal? Or there's some other adjectives on your mind?" Tamsin cut her off, though her teasing tone betrayed her.

Bo chuckled too, feeling relieved that the blonde wasn't feeling offended. "So how's Brazenwood?" She asked, "I don't think I've ever met anyone from there before."

"It's alright, too good for your slow ass though," Tamsin said as she playfully hit Bo's head with the makeshift pillow the brunette made from her other pants out of her bag.

Bo grabbed it and smiled at the blonde. "Thank you, Tamsin, for saving my life and everything. I mean it," she said.

Tamsin's heart raced for the blooming smile on Bo's face. The light from the flames rendered the brunette in warm, glowing charms that made her hold her breath.

Clearing her throat, she turned away and stood up. "Whatever, just stop babbling, will you?"

Bo grinned and lay down on her sleeping bag. It was warm enough for her just to sleep without any covers. And for a very long time, she strangely felt safe again.

She stared at the blonde who sat right next to her but was looking away, her heart fluttering for something that she couldn't quite grasp.

Slowly, weariness consumed her, and she drifted into her dreams.


	5. Chapter 5 - Home, Sweet Home

**A/N: Thanks for the guest reviewer for pointing out that Tamsin hasn't introduced herself to Bo before Bo knows her name. I added that in Chapter 2, so now Bo knows her name :). Sorry for that. And also to answer your question, no, Bo is not psychic.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5 - Home, Sweet Home**

Bo slept for a couple of hours, and when she woke up, she rolled to sit straight. Tamsin, who was sitting beside the fire sharpening her falchion with a piece of whetstone, raised to look at her.

Bo tilted her head at the blonde's sleeping bag, and smiled. Tamsin stopped what she had been doing, and gave Bo a simple nod.

She quiet lay down on top of her sleeping bag, and rolled on her side to face away from the brunette. Minutes later, she fell asleep.

Bo sat there vigilantly, but that vigilant phase only lasted for a short while. Soon everything around her became a quiet, warm blend, calming her down.

The crackles of the fire, decorated by an occasional snap or two. The chirps of crickets and katydids. The nightwind. The running creek afar.

When the insects stopped singing once in a while, Bo could practically hear the starlight fall, for she was surrounded by nothing but a dead silence, like the entire planet had suddenly gone unconscious.

There were no distant sirens of firetrucks or ambulances, no neighbor noises of any kind. No clock ticking, phone beeping, or A/C unit running. No dripping water from the tap, or fridge humming.

It was just her, Tamsin, and the silent world.

Bo glanced at Tamsin again, and saw her flipping to her back while sleeping. She couldn't help but smile when she saw the slightest frown between the blonde's eyebrows, as if even in her dreams she was aware of Bo's stare.

Bo couldn't stop but wonder why Tamsin would prefer travelling alone. Was it her way to avoid unnecessary contact with other people and possible liabilities? Or did she not like interacting with other people at all?

 _Or maybe she's too mean_. Bo thought as she glanced at the blonde. She chuckled quietly, and when those soft, breathing sound died in the air, she was seized by that subtle pain that rendered Tamsin's face.

Bo licked her lips and paused, taking in that look, that look of being alone, that look of having lost everything, that look of being hardened by all the suffer one had had.

That look quickly went away, disappearing under the contrast of the light and the shadows, leaving Bo sighing.

* * *

They walked towards the city, away from the creek and into Creeksville. After trekking through the dirt roads and fields for hours, they entered a paved road.

It was close to the exit of the interstate, so there were quite a few houses and several small business places. However, none of them were occupied by humans anymore. Rats colonies, together with crows and starlings, happily became the residents.

Some of the house had been completely worn out or torn down, only with parts of their frames remaining. A few stray dogs were feasting on something behind those houses, their bodies looking unusually large. One of them raised and snarled at two women, but too busy eating to do anything to them.

"Watch out for those nasty shit, okay?" Tamsin whispered to Bo as she pulled the brunette closer to her and held her hand tightly. "If you draw their attention, they will not hesitate putting their teeth into your neck."

"Are those zombie dogs or something?" Bo asked, as she realized that those lifeless eyes and the thirst for flesh were exactly the same as the look on zombies' face.

"I don't know...maybe they have eaten too much rotten human flesh or something. Maybe the damn zombie virus got them too. Anyway, you should stay away from them."

Bo nodded. She wanted to ask about something else, but stopped when they passed by a house with two tire-flat, rusty cars in the front.

Half buried in the tall grass, the house had a big oak tree in its front yard. On a low, strong branch there hung three skeletons, one significantly smaller than the other two.

Their flesh was long gone, either eaten by the birds or completely decomposed. Their clothes were nothing but crude rags. The only garment that had remained in shape was a shoe on the smallest skeleton's left foot; its color had completely faded, though Bo could still see the tiny bowtie on it.

A strong gust forced the skeleton to swing and to knock into each other, and Bo had to close her eyes and turn away.

She forced herself not to ponder the tragedy that had happened here. She didn't want to pursue the answer of why the family had decided to hang themselves with their kid. She just couldn't bare the thought of them choosing to do so because there had been no other choice.

She thought Tamsin would mock her, or at least huff out a scoff from her nose. However, the blonde just quietly walked by her side.

A while later, they arrived at the intersection of the road and the interstate exit ramp. The stop sign had fallen down a long time ago, and so were the traffic lights.

The road sign on the other side of the road had had been painted over, the directions or the name of the cities covered. A big, red skull was painted on top of them. Under it someone had written "DANGER" with an arrow pointing ahead, and "DON'T GO" with an arrow pointing to the left.

Not knowing which direction to go, Bo took out her map, but the blonde pushed her hand down and give her a smirk.

"No need," Tamsin told her and headed to the don't-go direction. "This way."

"Umm...are you sure? Maybe we should look at the map first, I mean...I don't want to walk another 5 hours only to find us in some place other than Creeksville," Bo murmured, surprised by the level of confidence in Tamsin's voice.

The blonde scoffed. She turned to Bo and leaned in. "I'm too awesome for maps," she said in a low, teasing voice.

With Tamsin's lips dangerously close to her cheek and her breath so soft and warm, Bo's heart raced. She took a step back, and chuckled. "Okay," she said, "but if we end up in the wrong place later, you and I are gonna have a serious talk."

"I don't do serious talks, and I don't point at wrong directions," Tamsin said, a little carried away when she gazed at the city afar. Somehow Bo sensed a hint of bitterness seeping through the blonde's voice, and that pinched her heart.

They passed by gas stations, restaurants, condo communities, liquor stores. The traffic lights started to appear more frequently, with more gas stations and stores.

A Walmart supercenter appeared on their left side, its parking lot mostly empty, with a few trashed cars in the corner.

Bo turned to Tamsin, her head tilting to the supermarket. The blonde rolled her eyes, but gave her a nod.

They got off the road and headed towards the store, walking quietly side by side. After passing by the Walmart nursery, where a lot of pots were left behind and stacks of fertilizer ripped, emptied, or dusty, they arrived at the entrance of the store.

The automated glass door had a giant hole in it, its frame deformed; it looked like someone had driven a vehicle into it.

They went through the hole, carefully not to let themselves get cut by any of the sharp glass edges, and finally entered the store.

The fallen shelves and broken glasses greeted them. Empty packages of merchandise were everywhere. Dried blood spatters and bodies were scattered all over the place. Some of them had belonged to humans, while others had been walkers.

Bo sighed at a body sitting against the wall, with a bow in its hands, a quiver beside it, and its head gone. It looked like whoever it was, had put up a fight, and maybe they got bitten and someone else cut their head off to kill them.

"Need to take that home for dinner?" The blonde's teasing voice came to Bo.

Bo rolled her eyes and started to walk around the store. She looked for anything useful, but other than more bodies and trash, she found nothing.

In the electronic section, the locked display case was busted, the content gone, leaving a few game CDs on the floor stepped on and cracked. The nice TVs, computers and everything else were half gone, half broken. Only a few pieces of low end things weren't touched.

"I'm gonna go check out the warehouse in the back," a bored Tamsin told Bo and took off.

Bo nodded, a smile appearing on her lips as she watched the blonde leave. She went back to search shortly.

The things that weren't good for apocalypse surviving were left intact, while things needed for such purpose were all gone. The only useful thing she found was a pack of batteries that had been fallen under the shelf, maybe before everything had happened.

Hearing a click behind her, she turned around, her back against the shelf. She pulled out the dagger given her by Tamsin because she had lost her baseball bat to the cannibals.

To her relief, it was Tamsin holding a few things in her hand.

"Half of the warehouse was burnt down. Found a few cases of flour, oatmeal and stuff, should still be good. Some seasoning extracts, good stuff. I'll get them later," the blonde told Bo as she put a sewing kit she had just found into her backpack.

"Seasoning extracts? You are going to bake a cake later something?" Bo murmured, confused.

Tamsin couldn't help but laugh, her soft voice echoing inside the empty store. "Right, you are from government settlement. I bet you get a portion of basic supplies regularly," she murmured. "Including soaps right?"

"Yeah, one bar every 4 months. I'm out of it already," Bo said. Then she frowned at the blonde. "Why? They have anything to do with soaps or something?"

"They have everything to do with the pleasant smell of the handmade soaps for sure," Tamsin explained to her. "Wanna smell like vanilla instead of lard? You add a drop or two vanilla extract when making them."

"Making them...you make soaps yourself? From scratch?"

"Where the else am I supposed to get it then?" Tamsin said, rolling her eyes. "Like it's hard."

Bo shot her a cold stare, and followed her to the exit of the store. After walking quietly for a while, she eventually asked, "how do you make soaps from scratch?"

Tamsin huffed out a giggle, amused. She bit her bottom lip and looked at Bo, and saw the sincere curiosity in those brown eyes. Unable to resist it, she explained, "it's actually easier than baking a cake. You only need two things to make a soap. You need fat, and alkali. The fat from animals and the burnt ashes from plants would work. You soak the ash in water and let it sit for a couple of days, until the useful ingredients dissolve in the water. Then you put fat in and cook it down to thick, creamy paste. Put a few drops of extract in, and let the paste sit. When it's hardened, you cut it into bars, and place them aside for a couple of weeks before you use them."

"Just that easy?!" Bo beamed, her eyes wide open. "Wow!"

"It's never _just that easy_ , sweetheart," Tamsin snorted. "It's hard to figure out the ratio of fat and alkali actually. Too much fat, it's too soft and can't clean properly. Too much alkali, it burns you, and dries your skin."

"Okay," Bo nodded. She pondered for a while, before she asked, "do...people in Brazenwood all make soaps themselves?"

"They can, or they trade one from the soap makers," Tamsin said, finding Bo's questions interesting.

She turned to look at the brunette after they entered the main road again. The afternoon sun shined on Bo's face, rendering her eyes so beautifully, so softly that Tamsin had to hold her breath.

The brunette seemed not to have noticed her stare though, she just rubbed her sore shoulders and stretched her back a little, before she headed to the city.

* * *

At around dinner time, they took a break under a bridge of a city freeway to eat some food and rest. Flock of pigeons living under the bridge cooed at them, very interested in their food. However, too afraid of their cooking fire, they didn't make a single move.

While cooking, Bo took out her map and looked for her current location, so she could estimate the distance between her and her destination, which was a red circle in the corner.

Before she had found the bridge on the map, Tamsin took a glance at her map. "Why did you circle out the canyon over there? No one goes there but tourists."

Bo raised to looked at Tamsin. "How do you know it's the canyon?" She looked down at the map. "It didn't say anything on the map."

Tamsin huffed out a light laugh and turned away. She licked her lips for a few times, before she said, "why are you going there?"

"Kenzi's there," Bo answered

"Right," Tamsin rolled her eyes. She paused for a few seconds, before she asked, "how do you know she's there? She texted you?"

"No," Bo shook her head and punched the blonde softly. She took a bite of her food while examining the look on Tamsin's face. "It looks like someone's interested in the story of Kenzi."

"Whatever," the blonde shrugged and went back to cook her food.

"Well, since you are so interested," Bo teased. "I guess I could share her story."

After getting an eye roll from Tamsin, Bo chuckled and continued, "Kenzi and I are both adopted. Well, unfortunately our parents, the couple who adopted us, died in a car accident when we were very young. So, it was like foster care after foster care for us. We ended up in different families in different states, but we kept writing to each other and managed to see each other once in a while."

"Wow, sounds like girlfriends to me," Tamsin commented, and Bo laughed.

"No, it's not like that," the brunette explained. "She's family." She paused for a while to devour her food, and then she continued, "anyway, we later started a small business together and we shared a house. That's how I know Kenzi."

"Boring," the blonde said, yet the look in her eyes nothing but teasing.

"Not long after that, the zombie outbreak started, and you know...a year later, this mandatory enlisting thing from the government. Every household has to at least have one person join the zombie-killing army?"

"Mhm," Tamsin nodded.

"We got the enlist notice, and I said I would go. We had this last dinner together to say goodbye to each other, but the next morning when I got up, she was gone ," Bo explained. "That was the last time I saw her. Days later, I got her email, saying that she joined the army and that everything was fine. Then… the internet service was shut down and we had to go by handwritten letters, but that didn't last long. Two years after she joined the army, I got an MIA notice from the government. It said that they lost her unit to the flesheasters, and that they weren't able to retrieve their bodies."

A long, heavy silence consumed them, each in her own thoughts. After what seemed to be forever, Tamsin murmured, "however, you just know that she is still alive because hmm...she told you in your dream?"

Bo playfully slapped the blonde on her arm, before she said, "no, for years I thought for sure she was dead. I mean, if she wasn't, she'd contact me, but...I thought I lost her, until a few months ago in the settlement, a group of new people came. They were from the military and had survived in the mountains for years until they found out about the settlement."

"Okay?"

"Anyway, we chatted about Kenzi, and one of them just casually mentioned about receiving a signal from the army chip somewhere around Creeksville."

"Army chip?" Tamsin frowned. "You mean those chips implanted in the zombie-fighting soldiers?"

Bo nodded and reached to the side of her neck. She tapped the lower part and said, "yeah, one of those implanted here for every soldiers to track their locations and stuff. According to those guys, each chip has a different frequency or something, and continues sending signals until the soldier dies."

"That could be some lone signal bounced back and forth through the clouds or something," Tamsin commented.

"No, it's not," Bo said. "I asked them to track it, and they received it again. They confirmed her identity by decoding the signal it had been sending. She's still alive."

"Yep, and she's been happily living around the canyon with the wild lives for years instead of contacting you?" Tamsin scoffed, immediately finding her tone too harsh.

Bo bit her bottom lip and watched the fire blankly for a few seconds, before she raised to gaze at Tamsin, her eyes sparkling behind the flames. "Honestly, I don't know what happened. I know Kenzi. I know her well, Tamsin. I know that if she has survived, she'd manage to find me. I left her notes and directions to the settlement in our old house. I know that would be the first place she goes to if she is still alive. Then, she'd come to the settlement and find me, or at least, send a message to me or something."

"But, it's been over 6 years. She never showed up, nor did she send any message."

Bo nodded as she put a handful of wood chips and twigs on top of the fire. She stared at those flames, partially in a trance. "I just...I have to find her. I need to figure out why the chip hasn't turned off if she is really dead. I need to know."

 _Maybe the chip works on zombies too, and she got turned._ That was what Tamsin wanted to say. However, it stuck in her throat and choked her when she saw the tears in Bo's eyes. How could she crush her hope like this? How could she when the brunette was swallowing back her tears?

"So you asked the guys to triangulate the location of the chip and that location is somewhere around the canyon?"

"Yeah..." Bo muttered as she pulled out a handheld device from the back of her pants. "Those guys made this for me, said that the closer I get to the chip, the faster this light-" she pointed at at small light bulb in the middle of the device, "-would flash, but it would only work if I'm not too far away from the chip, so...I have to get there first."

Tamsin nodded. She cleared her mug and put out the fire, before she stood up and pointed to the left. "There's a outdoor store over there. Maybe if we are lucky we can find a bike or something to ride."

Bo frowned again. "How do you know there's a outdoor store?"

Tamsin let out a heavy smile. She tried to come up with some witty answers, maybe a snarky reply, but they formed a lump in her throat, and gagged her. She swallowed hard, and breathed. Looking away to avoid eye contact, she said, "I used to live in Creeksville."

As if it wasn't cleared enough for Bo to understand, she quickly glanced at the brunette who was gaping at her, and added, "I was born and raised here."

* * *

 **A/N: Yay, now Bo finally knows one thing about Tamsin, that she's from Creeskville, one of the zombie outbreak origins. They will talk more in the next chap, and there's gonna be a lot of Tamsin's flashbacks.**

 **Thanks for reading and reviewing this story! Love you guys!**


	6. Chapter 6 - Outbreak Day

**Chapter 6 - Outbreak Day**

Tamsin grabbed her hoodie from the couch and put it on. While pulling the hem, she went to the window to check the weather outside.

Rain drops fell from the lead-gray sky. It was wet everywhere. Water came down from the gutter, pooling under the stairs of the back porch.

Tamsin shrugged, and started to look for her umbrella, however after having gone through all the cabinets, she found none.

"Mom!" She yelled at the master bedroom. "Where is my umbrella?"

Her mother came out from the bedroom, adjusting her earrings before tying up her hair. "It's here somewhere."

"Yeah, like where?" Tamsin mumbled as she pointed at the umbrella bucket on the back porch. There were a big black one, a small one with Avengers on it, and a medium one with a vibrant orange color. None of them were hers.

Her mother pursed her lips, pondering the question while picking up a kid toy from the floor. She threw it into a toy basket in the corner of the room, before she answered, "why don't you just take your dad's? He's not gonna use it today."

"Fine," Tamsin replied with an eye roll. She grabbed the big umbrella, and sat down beside the door to the back porch, looking for her rainboots. "What do you need from the store again?"

"Butter, tomatoes, trash bags, and shampoo," her 9 year old sister told her before her mother did. The little girl let those words pop out from her mouth in a bland tone, while texting on her phone avidly.

"And chocolate," Tamsin's 4 year old brother added while sitting at the dining table to eat his breakfast. A green cereal fruit loop was stuck on his face, and milk dribbled down along his chin.

"No, honey, no chocolate," their mother said as she shook her head at Tamsin with a serious look.

"Okay, no chocolate, gotcha," Tamsin replied as she pulled up her rainboots. She stood up, opened the door and stepped out.

She squinted her right eye at her brother before she took off, and the little boy giggled, almost knocking off his cereal bowl.

* * *

Tamsin hummed her favorite song while walking briskly towards the grocery store that was 5 blocks away from her home.

The cool, misty breeze embraced her, and she inhaled the mid fall season. The fresh scent of the rain, the dying grass, and the color changing trees.

After a while, she tuned everything out, most of her mind thinking about which movie she should go see with her friends this weekend, her best friend's coming birthday party, and the coming fall break next week.

As the idea of the coming fall break came to her, it made her heart flutter in joy, but at the same time, making her nervous. She realized that the finals wouldn't be too far away. However, she shrugged and told herself that they were still a month and half away. Why should she worry now? Why couldn't she enjoy her life for another couple of weeks?

Arriving at the store, she closed her umbrella and put it in the bucket beside the entrance. She stomped her feet on the doormat and rubbed the bottom of her boots against it. Then, she went in.

A small doorbell rang above her head as the door opened, and the cashier waved at her.

"Hey, Tamsin, running errands for your mother again?" He teased.

"Yeah," Tamsin shrugged at him, before she grabbed a basket.

"Well, if you need anything, just let me know, okay?"

"Sure, thanks, Mr. Wilson," Tamsin told him with a smile. Then, she went through the aisles and started to look for the things her mother had wanted.

After getting the butter and tomatoes, she stopped at the shelf where the shampoos were at, and read the yellow tag which said "buy 2 get 1 50% off". She checked to make sure that the brand she was going to get was included, before she took down two bottles and put them into the basket.

She lingered at the candy section for a while, and picked up a bar of chocolate. she slid it into her basket while chuckling quietly as she pictured how angry her mother would be when she found out that Tamsin had bought chocolate for her brother.

The ringing of the doorbell came to her. Then, she heard someone walking into the store. She couldn't see them because of the shelves, but she could hear the noise they made when they walked. It sounded like they were having trouble picking up their feet from the ground, so instead they dragged their legs along with them.

She heard the cashier saying "whoa, ma'am-", together with the sound of someone swallowing saliva hard, grunting and lip smacking.

"Whoa whoa! Wait, what are you-" the cashier's voice came to her again, only was interrupted by the sound of something heavy falling to the floor. It was immediately followed by a loud, sharp scream of the cashier's.

She heard struggles, more screams and cries of agony. Then there was the sound of a shotgun firing, and she immediately lowered her body while covering her ears with the basket hanging on her arm.

A loud cry that was cut off came to her, seizing her heart. She got down on the floor and held her breath, as she listened to the sound of chomping, munching and swallowing.

She struggled to get her phone, and it was then she realized that her palms were covered in cold sweat. She swallowed hard as she typed 9, 1 and 1.

 _What just happened?_ She asked herself as she inched forward on her hands and knees. She had no idea why suddenly she had become so afraid, but that scream of agony from the cashier somehow rang in her head like a fire alarm.

"Mr. Wilson…?" She called, her voice shaking.

No one answered her, but a series of growling and chewing.

Tamsin took a deep breath, as she crawled out from behind the shelf. She froze when she saw the cashier lying in the middle of a huge pool of blood.

Two people, or creatures looking like humans who crouched beside the cashier raised to look at her. They look exactly like humans, except those small rotten spots on their skin, the fresh blood dribbling down on their clothes, and the flesh chunks in their mouths.

One of them immediately went back to dig into the cashier's thigh with his bare teeth. Low, happy growls came out from his throat, muffled by the human flesh in his mouth.

The other one, however, reached for Tamsin with her bloody hands. That move suddenly made Tamsin gain her strength and her voice back.

Tamsin screamed, and smashed her basket as the woman's head. The woman was knocked to the side, and Tamsin dashed out through the door.

She breathlessly dialed 911 while running as fast as she could.

"Jackson county 911. What's your emergency?" A calm, sweet female voice answered her call.

Tamsin panted and swallowed hard. It took her a while and the receptionist repeating twice, before she could actually speak. "Help..." she said, "Someone's eating...someone's eating Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson...he's...he's-"

"I'm sorry I can't quite hear you, miss," the receptionist answered. "Could you tell me where you are?"

Tamsin had to stop and look at the street name sign before she could tell the other woman where she was. When she looked around, she saw groups of human-like things chasing other people along the street. Those who weren't chased were running for their lives.

She saw those human-like creatures gobbling people alive. "Zombies," she blurted, running away from those things. "They are zombies...they are-zombies are eating humans."

"I'm sorry, miss, what was that again?" The woman on the phone asked after a long pause.

"I said zombies are eating humans alive!" Tamsin said with a loud whimper as the image of those two eating Mr. Wilson in front of her came to her vividly. "They are everywhere!"

The receptionist paused for a while, before she said, "I'm afraid that-oh my God! There's-"

Her panicking voice was cut off by a loud scream, and Tamsin listened in horror as the same munching and chomping sound came through the phone.

Then, it was dead silence on the phone. Shortly after that, the call was ended.

Tamsin squeezed her phone hard and ran. Too much fear overwhelmed her, and tears started to burst out.

Screams came from everywhere. People screaming in fear, in pain, and in the hope of staying alive. She heard the screams coming through the half closed door of the restaurant her family would always go to. She heard cries coming from the flower shop she had bought flower for Mother's Day. She heard them coming from the supermarket, the tire shop, the tailor place, from every place she had been to.

She saw several zombies cornering a crying child across the street. She swallowed her fear and took out her pepper spray from her purse. She ran over, even though she had no idea if the spray would work on those creatures. However, she was too late. She watched them tearing the poor kid apart and inhaling his flesh.

They then came after her, and she had no choice but to run.

The rain drenched her clothes. Her legs were protesting, and so were her lungs. She inhaled too much air too fast and it made her throat burn. For a moment she thought she'd stop breathing and die, and the mere thought of being eaten by those creatures gave her the strength she never thought she'd have, making her run even faster.

* * *

"...like?" Bo's voice came to Tamsin. Although incoherent and afar, it did pull the blonde out from her train of thoughts.

"What?" Tamsin asked in reflex. She glanced at Bo and quickly turned away, doing the best she could to hold all the feelings inside.

"I said, were you here when the outbreak happened? What was it like?" Bo repeated her question.

Tamsin managed a shrug. She secretly swallowed, trying to forget the screams, blood and bodies.

"You were here during the outbreak?" Bo pursued.

"I was," Tamsin replied simply. A part of her wanted to tell the story to Bo, but the rest of it just yelled "no" at herself.

"What was it like?" Bo asked as she followed the other woman to the outdoor store, concerned.

"I imagine that it doesn't have anything to do you, does it?" Tamsin replied as she leaned towards Bo a little, a hint of teasing in her eyes.

"Well, I told you about Kenzi, it's only fair if you-"

"-tell you my story as well?" Tamsin interrupted her, amused. She scrunched her nose at the brunette and continued, "I don't do stories, sweetheart."

"Why? Because yours are lame?" Bo countered.

Tamsin rolled her eyes and turned away from the brunette with a soft scoff. She stared at a pile of dead bodies, mostly fleshless skeletons, outside a fast food store, and said, "you know how the outbreak was like, okay? A bunch of people turned. They preyed on humans. Everybody was either killed or turned or running for dear life. End of story. Happy now?"

Bo couldn't help but let out a chuckle, and the blonde curled her lips into a subtle smile. However, when Bo's chuckle died in the air, she noticed the bitterness deep down in Tamsin's light eyes. The painfully bitter look was buried deep, under the dancing sparkles of the sun, under the teasing look, and under the blonde's nonchalant attitude.

She couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Tamsin 10 years ago. Had her life been hard back then? Had she witnessed unspeakably horrible things? Had she lost someone she had held dear to her heart?

"Are you coming in or not?" Tamsin's voice interrupted Bo.

Bo licked her lips as she looked at the blonde who stood in front of a narrow space between the budged doors of a big outdoor store. The bitterness in those light eyes was gone, maybe having sunk deep inside already.

"Yeah, of course," Bo answered as she walked in.

* * *

They quickly went through the store, walking passed by the empty shelves and cracked counters and checking the warehouse behind. Unfortunately, the warehouse was filled with trash, bodies and blood drenched camo shirts.

Bo eventually managed to find a bike under a pile of fallen ceiling tiles and other broken merchandize. "Hey, look!" She beamed at the blonde as she dragged the bike out.

Tamsin rolled her eyes when she glanced at the bike. The frame of the bike was pink, and the tires were ivory with brown rims. The seat, and the grips, were ivory too, with brown on the sides. There was also a white basket in the front. It was dusty, and its front tire was bent slightly, but other that those, it looked like it was in mint condition.

"Hey, I am pretty sure I can fix it," Bo said as she picked up a piece of brick. She unscrewed the tire with a toolkit that she had carried with her, and laid the tire flat on the floor.

"Yeah, believe me, sweetheart. It's not the tire that I'm worried about," the blonde grunted as she picked out a small hand pump from the debris and threw it to Bo.

"Why? You don't like pink?" Bo teased as she hammered bent rim of the tire, until it was flat again. She pulled the bike up, and started to pump the tires. "I don't think we have many choices here, Tamsin."

"First of all, there is no _we_ , and second, yes I do have another choice," Tamsin hissed. "I can walk, instead of getting on _that thing_."

"Like anyone's gonna judge you for riding a pink bike now," Bo murmured, sitting on the bike to see if the height of the seat was proper. She got down after a few seconds, and lowered the seat a little. "I mean, the zombies out there will be equally attracted to you with or without a pink bike, and you know that, right?"

Tamsin shot her a cold stare, and headed out. She was a little absentminded because of her old memories about the outbreak, and when she squeezed through the space between the doors, she cut herself on a piece of broken glass that was sticking out.

 _Great_. She thought as she checked her left forearm, and saw a shallow, three inch long injury. Blood slowly seeped through, and she grunted as she wipe them off with the back of her right hand.

"Are you okay?" Bo asked, rushing over with the bike.

"I'm alright," Tamsin replied in a grunt, before she walked out.

* * *

The sun had set, but Tamsin still felt like everything was melting around her. The heated, humid air tasted like sweat, too thick for her to breathe. A small swarm of mosquitoes circled above her head. They weren't attacking her, but their very presence annoyed her.

Waving her arms back and forth, she forced them to go away, though only for a second or two. After that, they gathered together and danced above her head again.

Tamsin sighe, and rubbed her sore shoulder. Her sweat stung the small grazes on her neck and shoulders, but he just kept walking.

The trees on the sides of the road looked like they were dying from a drought. The grasses looked pale and dry too.

 _When was the last time it has rained here?_ Tamsin asked herself. The last rain she remembered was almost two weeks ago, before she had met Bo, and that was miles away from here.

She paused, panting, bending forward slightly, feeling the thick air choking her.

"Are you sure you don't want a ride?" Bo asked lazily as she caught up with Tamsin on bike.

"No, I just want to drag you off that damn thing and burn it," Tamsin replied in a growl.

"Really? I thought you'd be too exhausted to do that," Bo teased, riding in a circle around the blonde.

Tamsin hissed, but her eyes uncontrollably fell on the pannier rack. It was pink, bright pink, but with her legs heavy like lead and her skin burning, it was the second most tempting thing in the world right now, immediately after a cold beer.

"Just hop on, will ya?" Bo told her after stopping in front of the blonde. She twisted her torso to tap the pannier rack gently while faking a seductive look on her face.

Tamsin sighed while wiping the streaking sweat off her forehead. She took a deep breath and sat down on the rack sideways.

She adjusted her position, not too close to the brunette, not too far from the center to fall down either. The bike suddenly jolted forward, and she lost her balance, ending up with her arms tightly grabbing the brunette's body and her face smashed into Bo's back.

Bo laughed as she stopped the bike again, and Tamsin hissed and gave her a hard pinch on the side of her waist before withdrawing her arms.

"Just hold on tight, okay?" Bo told the blonde in chuckles, before she took Tamsin's right arm and put it around her waist again. "Cuz if you fall, I'm not coming back for you."

"Whatever," the blonde replied, rolling her eyes. Bo's body heat burnt her, forcing her to loosen her grip on her waist. Gently grabbing the corner of Bo's tank top, she mumbled, "are we leaving or not?"

"Wait, so there is a _we_?" Bo asked, and the blonde immediately slapped her arm.

Bo laughed again, before she took off, she asked, "Kenzi first, or your scavenger hunt first?"

"Ummm...if you want to carry a shit ton of loot from the hospitals on the way to your dear friend, be my guest, let's hit the hospital first."

"Okay, Kenzi first it is then," Bo murmured as she pushed down the pedals.

* * *

They travelled on bike towards the canyon, and got off at where the ground started to become craggy and rugged when the dusk fell.

Bo put the bike away from the road, and covered it with foliage that had been dried by the sun, in case someone would come by and then take it.

They headed to their destination, that canyon where Kenzi was supposed to be at, on foot. During the trip, Bo turned on her device for a couple of times, but didn't receive anything yet. Afraid that the battery would be drained before she got close enough to Kenzi's location, she turned it off. The night slowly shrouded everything around them. The only things Bo could see before the moon came up, were Tamsin's shimmering eyes.

The blonde silently walked side by side with her, and Bo took out the advice again and wanted to see if they were close enough. Before she did though, a flock of spooked birds flitted out from the woods, above them, and then disappeared in the night sky.

Herds of deer and other animals ran out shortly after them, quickly moving towards downhill, moving fast into the darkness.

Tamsin frowned as she gripped the hilt of her falchion tightly, her other hand pulling Bo closer to her.

"What's going on?" Bo whispered and drew her dagger. She looked around vigilantly in the darkness, and slowly, she started to see pairs of sparkling things among the trees and long grass.

One, two, three...and when she counted five, she realized that those were eyes. Blood thirsty animal's eyes.

A loud, synchronized howling composited with different tone came to her. Immediately after that, a pack of zombie dogs came out from hiding. Their sizes varied, but one thing they had in common was the hungry desires in their bright eyes.

A big dog, the alpha of the pack, approached Tamsin and Bo slowly. It looked more like a wolf than a dog. It arched its back and howled again.

A group of howlings answered the alpha immediately and the rest of the pack showed up behind Bo and Tamsin.

"Fuck," Tamsin cursed as she glanced at the small injury on her arm. She could barely see it, but she could feel the blood seeping out again. Knowing that the smell of it was probably the reason the pack of those nasty creatures showed up, she pulled her weapon out and moved to the narrow opening between the dogs while dragging Bo along with her.

The alpha snarled and pounced at them, stopping them from escaping. Tamsin slammed her knee at it, kicking it away, but it quickly rolled on its paws and growled at them.

The pack tightened the circle they had formed excitedly, their growls low.

"Stay close, okay?" was the only thing Tamsin managed to tell Bo before they went into the battles with the dogs.

* * *

 **A/N: Per an anon's request, they got a pink bike :)**

 **More flashbacks coming up in the next chap, thanks.**


	7. Chapter 7 - Fireworks

**Chapter 7 - Fireworks**

The full moon peeked out from behind the distant mountains, lighting up everything including the dogs' sharp, dirty fangs, their hideous looks and the scars, lesions and rotten spots all over their bodies.

The entire gang closed up on Tamsin and Bo slowly, and the alpha carefully stayed behind a few large dogs. His eyeballs were reflecting the moonlight, bright as torches yet lifeless and empty. There was only ravenousness and cruelty in them, just like the others. His fur was long and in knots, hair tangled up because of dried blood, tissue or pus. Saliva drooled down along his chin.

"I've never seen a dog as ugly as that..." Bo whispered to the blonde as she took off her backpack and held it in front of her chest as a shield.

"That thing is not a damn dog," Tamsin whispered in a hiss, squeezing the hilt of her falchion hard.

She stared at the alpha, her eyes going from its blade sharp claws to the tumor-like growths scattered along the length of its spine. "It's a fucking demon that has clawed its way out from hell," she murmured to Bo, taking a step back to get closer to the brunette.

Bo slurred something that neither of them had quite comprehend. The brunette swallowed hard as she stared at the alpha's exposed dura pulsing under a long, narrow crack in its skull, which looked as if his brain growth had gone crazy and cracked the skull open.

The alpha sank his claws into the mud, and barked in a low, dangerous tone. Two dogs came at Bo as if they took the bark as an order.

The brunette swung her bag at them, knocking one away from her. The other one clung to her backpack and snapped at her. Bo thrust her dagger into its head as deep as she could until the thing stopped moving.

Bo let the dead monster fall down and held her dagger up. She guarded herself with her bag and hissed, "who wants to be next?"

A large dog looking like a Rottweiler dashed at Bo. It still had its collar on, a dark, leather one with metal rings and buds as the decoration. In the middle there hung a bone-shaped name tag, but the name was too smudged to be seen.

Bo shoved the corner of her backpack into the dog's mouth and tried to stab it. The animal shook its head violently, throwing her bag away before coming at her again.

Bo fell back, and the dog knocked her down. With its claws tightly pressing on her shoulder, it came at her throat.

Bo jolted to the side, and that move pissed the dog off. It took her blade between its teeth and tried to pull it off her hand.

With her left forearm choking the animal, Bo battled with it. They rolled back and forth on the ground, until the dog crushed her dagger into half with its teeth.

Bo held her breath and fought back, trying to push it away, but it was too strong. Those sharp, darkened fangs were less than an inch away from her throat.

Bo closed her eyes in reflex when the dog slobbered, and then the pressure on her shoulders suddenly disappeared.

She gasped and propped herself on her elbows, watching Tamsin slashing her falchion at the dog and slit its throat.

The monster twitched for a while, before it lolled on the ground. Thick fluids flew out from its wound, a little darker than fresh blood and with a stronger rusty smell.

The metallic scent ignited and the dogs around it barked swarmed in and inhaled the dead body, leaving only pieces of bones and fur scattered on the ground.

"Come on," Tamsin commanded as she grabbed Bo's arm. She pulled the brunette forcefully as she breathlessly lead the way to a small opening on their left.

The alpha chased them while his minions fanned out and came at them from several directions. Tamsin swung her backpack to fend off a medium sized dog with bloodshot eyes.

They had barely taken off a few yards, before a group of dogs showed up in front of them. They stared at them, sniffing the air, snarling, as if they had just gotten a fresh message of a bloody feast.

"Shit," Tamsin cursed as she glanced at her injury, which had started bleeding again due to all the pulling and fighting she had just had. She pulled Bo closer and ran towards the weakest spot while desperately trying to come up with a plan.

"How can there be so many damn zombie dogs?" Bo complained, following Tamsin after a sharp turn to the right. The bloodthirsty howling and snarling had turned into a symphony of horror, and they kept running into dogs who aimed at their throats.

Tamsin slammed her foot into a dog's face, before she crushed it throat with a heavy blow from her elbow. "Well, what do you expect when almost half of the families in Creeksville had dogs?" She said as she tossed her last backup weapon, a survival knife, at Bo.

Bo didn't make any comment. She was too busy killing a dog that almost had sunk its teeth into her thigh.

Tamsin pulled the brunette closer to her, practically embracing her in her right arm. She quickly scanned the huge pack, where a lot of them were eating the dogs she and Bo had just killed and a few stared at them viciously.

She knew that there were too many dogs, and they would never let them go, not her anyway, since blood was still seeping through her wound. The dogs would wear them out, and then they would happily gobble them.

"Alright, I got a plan," Tamsin told Bo as they killed a few zombie dogs together.

"Oh I'd love to hear about a plan," the brunette murmured.

Tamsin took a deep breath as she threw a disemboweled dog into the pack. She panted to catch her breath. "I'm gonna distract them, so you can get out."

"What?! Are you out of your mind?!" Bo exclaimed, smashing her bag at a dog repeatedly till it stopped moving.

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "Here's what's gonna happen to us tonight. We both die. One of us get out, or both of us get out," she pointed at her bleeding wound on her arm with her chin and continued, "they'll never let me off the hook."

"I can't just leave, Tamsin!"

"Then figure something out when you get out."

"What if-" Bo was interrupted briefly when two dogs came at her at the same time. She kicked one away, and the blonde took the other. "What if I can't come up with anything?"

Tamsin swallowed hard as she killed the dog and threw it away from them. "Then you run," she said simply as she shoved Bo towards a spot guarded by only a few dogs. Once Bo was steps away from her, she ripped her wound, smeared her blood over her arm and ran towards the other side.

The dogs swarmed at her, unable to resist the smell of the fresh blood. Some of them tried to attack Bo, but once the smell had reached their nose, they turned around with growls humming in their throats and dashed towards it..

Bo closed her eyes and got rid off the last dog that was coming at her. She took a glance at the blonde, before she took off and disappeared in the darkness.

Tamsin huffed out a sneer through her nose as she stared into the alpha's lifeless eyes. "Like I am afraid of you," she hissed, swinging her bag at those who jumped at her.

She heard Bo leaving, and a part of her became hollow, so hollow that it pained her. However, at the same time, she was relieved.

"Bring it on," she bit those word out, slashing her blade at the closest animal.

* * *

Raising her fire axe in a defensive stance, Tamsin looked around for the last time. She checked the entrance and the exit of the street she was on, the half opened doors of the stores on the other side, and the bookstore in the corner.

She saw nothing suspicious, and that made her feel a little relieved. She squeezed herself through the door behind her, entering the convenience store in stealth.

Once she was in, she knocked on the inside of the glass door. One long, two short, two long then one short. It was a signal shared among the survivors, which would allow whoever entering a place announce himself as a human instead of a zombie.

She waited for a couple of seconds, and sighed with relief when she heard no one answering her. She didn't want to fight with the others for a can of tuna or a bag of flour, because some of them were more dangerous than the zombies.

She looked for useful things in the store, primarily food because that was what her family really needed right now.

It was dark inside. Most of the sunlight was blocked by the boarded doors and windows, with only a few rays escaping. They silhouetted out everything inside the store for her, the pile of fallen bricks and tiles, the empty shelves and the blood spatters on the walls.

She stopped at a fallen shelf, kneeling down before pressing the left side of her face on the dusty floor. Turning on the small flashlight on her keyring, she peaked through the narrow space between the floor and the side of the shelf.

A rush of joy fluttered in her stomach the moment she saw cans of food trapped under the shelf. She grabbed the side of it and pulled, but it was too heavy for her to lift.

Tamsin picked up a piece of medal bar, and stuck it under the side of the shelf. She pried it open with every bit of strength she had. Once there was enough space for her to get the cans, she propped the bar and stuck it between the floor and the shelf to hold the heavy thing.

Quickly taking off her backpack, she threw all the cans into it. She struggled to the put the bag on. It was a little too heavy for her, but she couldn't leave a single can out.

She walked to the exit, dragging her axe across the floor. Just when she was about to step out, she heard a low growl behind her.

She gasped, raising her axe while turning around.

A zombie, who had been lurking on the top of the corner shelf, jumped down, and Tamsin had no idea why it hadn't attacked her earlier.

Tamsin glanced at the ragged clothes and the dried blood smeared around its mouth, before she recognized her as her 5th grade math swallowed hard, forcing a few sweet memories from the math class out from her mind while swinging the axe at the zombie. However, she lost control of it, and the blade missed the zombie. Instead it sank into the back panel of a shelf beside her, and she couldn't pull it out.

She let go of the handle and tried to run, but the zombie grabbed her from behind. Tamsin struggled to turn around, shoving her knee into the walking dead while dodging the bared teeth.

They battled, rolling on the floor. For a moment Tamsin had successfully pushed the zombie off her, but it didn't let her escape. It pulled her down, and Tamsin slammed her elbow into its face while struggling to free herself.

While batting against the zombie, Tamsin knocked off the metal bar she had used to hold the shelf up. The shelf crashed down. With a loud noise its sharp, metal edge cut through the back of the zombie's neck and chopped its head off.

As the head rolled to the side, Tamsin had finally let out the breath she had been holding. She panted while slowly pulling her trembling legs out from under the zombie.

For a short while she couldn't even feel her legs, until a sharp pain seized her. She looked down, and when she saw some blood dribbling down along her left ankle, her blood ran cold.

She reached out and rolled her pants up, breaking into sobs when she saw a clear, fresh bite mark on her left shin.

She wiped her tears off and rolled on her knees to stand up. As more tears burst out, she ran out, half crawling.

No matter how fast she had run though, the fear always managed to catch up with her, consuming her, devouring her.

* * *

Tamsin rubbed the side of her jaw on her shoulder to wipe a few drops of dark blood away as she sprinted back and forth inside the small circle of dogs. She breathlessly stabbed one that had its teeth sunk into her shin, and kicked its body away from her, before she battled another.

The alpha seemed to have enjoyed the process. He patiently watched her fighting his minions, one or two at a time.

Tamsin hissed at those dead eyes, kicking into a dog's stomach to force it to fall back. She had lost count of how many zombie dogs she had killed. No matter how many she had killed, the number of animals in the pack never seemed to have decreased.

There were so many of them, big, small, with collar, with service dog jacket, with leash that was half gone, with mutated body parts, with tumor-like growths, with scars.

Tamsin panted as she slammed her foot into another dog. She swallowed hard, wiping her chin while wondering how much time it would take before she gave up, or became too exhausted to do anything.

She feared that it wouldn't take too long, since every piece of her muscle was in pain. Her legs were heavy, and so were her arms. Her vision had just started to blur, because of her sweat dripping into her eyes.

There were too many damn monsters around her, growling, snarling, howling. They dashed at her, pounced at her, and jumped at her. They dug their teeth into her flesh whenever they had the chance, and bite crazily after having gotten a taste of fresh blood.

Tamsin growled at the alpha's taunting look. A loud yell burst out from her mouth, as she dropped her bag and leaped at the monster. The alpha bared its teeth, and pounced at her.

The both fell down on the ground, battling. Tamsin shoved her left fist into the dog's mouth to force it back while holding up her falchion.

She aimed at the monster's head, and the alpha's front paws were on her chest trying to claw her heart out.

A sharp pain came from her left thigh. Then, from her right shin. She knew some dog must have taken the chance, but there was nothing she could do.

She yelled again, squeezing her blade tight before thrusting it at the monster. The blade got knocked off in the middle by a large dog that had come at her.

Air had been forcing out from her chest. The claws of the alpha had slowly sunk into her flesh. She closed her eyes, though still didn't give up. She gripped the monster's neck with her bare hands and squeezed as hard as she could.

A loud roar interrupted them. The alpha let go of her momentarily and looked back, and so were the other dogs.

Tamsin turned to the voice. With her eyes so blurry, she could only see a bright spot coming at them fast.

She rolled on her knees and picked up her blade. Before the alpha had reacted, she shoved the falchion all the way into his brain. She kept pushing it until the monster stopped moving.

The stirred pack howled in panic, but a large dog, whom Tamsin thought to be the alpha female , stepped out and stopped them. She vigilantly growled at the coming thing.

As it came closer, Tamsin had finally realized that it was a burning torch. Then she saw Bo riding the pink bike while holding up the torch.

Tamsin's heart raced as she saw the brunette's beautiful face rendered by the roaring fire. It slammed against her ribcage, so hard that she could hardly breathe.

Bo made a loud sound, which sounded like battlecry. It echoed among the mountains, and she came directly at the alpha female. She shoved her torch at the dog, and the dog whined and fell back.

She waved the torch as if it was a sword while riding, and the pack ran away from the sizzling flames. Once the brunette had enough space, she took out something colorful and cylindrical from her back and put it on the ground. She lowered the torch at it, and ran to be at Tamsin's side.

When a deafening sound exploded and a red pattern bloomed in the sky, Tamsin had finally realized that it was a firework.

The dogs scattered, whining in fear. When Bo lit up another one, most of them fled. A few bold ones tried to attack Bo and Tamsin, but were killed by them.

One by one, the fireworks lit up the sky, red, blue, orange, green. The sound echoed among the mountains, reduced to a soft pop, before another one rose and exploded.

Tamsin heard her own heartbeat in her ears, loud as the fireworks, full of joy.

* * *

Tamsin muffled her sobs with her hands when she reached the back porch of her home. She was about to go in, but she heard her parents arguing something inside.

She crouched down beside the boarded door, telling herself to go in later. She didn't want to upset her parents, not when they were arguing.

"How can they do this to us?! How? How are we gonna-" her mother's voice came through the boarded door, reduced to suppressed whimpers.

"Well, we don't make the rules, do we?" her father's voice came, irritated, frustrated and angry. "They make the rules, because they are the government, Mindy. Because they can! And because they have everything!"

"We can't do this, Jack. We have 3 children, not 2! We can't just…." It seemed that her mother had a very hard time to finish her sentence, because she started to whimper again.

"We have to make a decision now," her father said firmly as he slammed his hand on the table.

Tamsin took a peek, and saw her father throwing a sheet of paper at her mother. Her mother refused to take it at first, but seemed not to be able to resist it.

As her mother held up the paper and sobbed, Tamsin saw a green logo of a tree, a bird and a human on the back of the sheet. She recognized it as the new, without border government logo, but she couldn't see anything that was written on it.

"We can't go to the settlement. We have 3 kids, Jack! The settlement only allows each adult to bring 1 child! I'd rather die here than parting with any one of them."

Her father threw his hands into the air in great frustration. "We stay, we all die. It's just a matter of time. We are running out of food and medicine. We are running out of everything! At least they offer a portion of everything in the settlement for everyone."

"But if we go there, we will have to-have to..." her mother burst into tears.

"Oh you can say it, Mindy! If we go there, we'll have to leave one child behind."

"How can you say that! How can you say that like it doesn't matter to you?!"

"We have to make sacrifice, okay?" Her father's voice softened a little. He grabbed the woman's shoulder and looked into her eyes. "You don't think I want to bring all of them with us? I would if we could. They've made it clear, one adult can only bring one child. We have to decide now. Either all of us die here, or 4 of us live."

"We can't...I can't..." her mother's sobs became loud whimpers.

"Yes, we can. We have to be strong, Mindy. We have to be strong for ourselves, and for Carl and Libby," her father said as he took the woman into his arms.

Her mother seemed to be stunned by what he had just said. She broke free from his arms, and pushed him away. "Carl and Libby?! What about Tammy?! You are just gonna leave her behind?!" She yelled.

"I wouldn't if I had a choice!" Her father yelled back. "It's time for you to stop that sentimental shit, and face the reality! There's only so much we can do!"

A long, dead silence consumed both of them, and Tamsin's heart sank, heavy as lead. She bit her bottom lip, and waited for them to say something. Anything. All she got was her mother's sobs. She saw her father embracing her mother again.

"I'm sorry, honey, but this is the only way. Tamsin's 16. She can take care of herself, okay? 2 years later, she'll be an adult, and she can go to the settlement on her own, you understand me?"

Tamsin's heart dangled in pain now. She waited for her mother's veto, but when she saw the woman bury her face into the man's chest with loud sobs, she knew any hope she had was beyond absurd.

She no longer felt her heart now. It was ripped out and crushed, leaving a hollow, bleeding hole inside her.

She slammed her hand to her mouth to stop the whimper that was about to escape, before she grabbed her backpack and ran.

She staggered towards the hills in tears. The wound on her leg pulsed, killing her with pain, though that was nothing compared to how much agony she had in her chest.

* * *

When the last fireworks' blossom faded from the night sky, Tamsin stared at the pale moon for a long, long time while the brunette tending her wounds.

"I thought you'd need some sleep," Bo teased in a whisper as she applied a thick layer of antibiotic cream on the blonde's injuries.

"Only losers need sleep after a fight," Tamsin slurred and straightened her body a little, ignoring the protests from her sore muscles. She looked around, and saw no dogs anywhere near them. She took the gauze roll and wrapped it around her arms and her thighs.

"I guess the fireworks worked. They all ran away," Bo told her.

"You don't think I already know that?" Tamsin replied, though her tone soft and teasing. She likced her lips when the brunette smiled at her, before she turned away. "Fireworks, huh?" She murmured.

"Was looking for dog repellents in town, and found the firework stash," Bo said. "I didn't know it would work so well."

"Yeah I'd say they ran away cuz I killed the alpha," Tamsin said with a smirk.

The brunette laughed, her voice dancing in the night wind. "Can't you say at least one nice thing to someone who just saved your life?" She complained softly, blowing air to the back of her index finger for it was burnt by the flames from her torch.

Tamsin huffed out a light laugh and reached for Bo's hand. She held the brunette's hand in hers and stared at the red spot on the back of her finger. She wanted to blow some air on it, but with her mind so hazy and her heart fluttering so fast, she ended up running her fingertips along the length of Bo's thumb while pressing her dry lips on the burnt spot.

The soft touch made both going quiet. Tamsin closed her eyes again, and rested her head on Bo's lap. She lolled, letting herself relax in the warm wind.

She squeezed the brunette's hand gently before drifting into her dreams, just so her heart could slow down a little to let herself breathe.


	8. Chapter 8 - Under the Canyon

**Chapter 8 - Under the Canyon**

Letting out a soft moan, Tamsin rubbed her cheek against whatever that was under her. _What is it?_ She asked herself, her head spinning in the haziness and darkness.

She drifted in and out of her dreams; one them was her lying in a dark, cold bog while staring into the bright fullmoon. She was sinking slowly. She could feel herself being pulled down into the very bottom of the bog. Strangely, she wasn't afraid, nor was she panicking. The moonlight embraced her, and the bog gently took her into its very heart.

She thought as she sank deeper the surroundings would be darker, but everything just got brighter as if the moonlight pierced through the bog. It took her a long time to realize that it was the sun.

She refused to open her eyes and snuggled into the warmth under her face. She sighed in a whisper, trying to resume her dream.

A soft chuckle came to her. Then her nose got pinched. "Wakey wakey," Bo singsonged.

Tamsin murmured a vague grunt. She pried one eye open, a little startled by Bo's face since it was only inches away from hers. There was a warm smile blooming on the brunette's lips, and the bright sunlight rendered her contours soft. So soft that a silent gasp escaped from Tamsin.

"Didn't someone said to me last night that only losers would need sleep after a fight or something?" Bo teased as she slid the back of her index finger along a thin lock of Tamsin's.

Tamsin barely managed to swallow her moan when Bo's skin made contact with hers. It was then she realized that she had her head resting on Bo's lap the entire time.

Giving the brunette a cold stare, Tamsin quickly sat up and moved away from the giggling brunette. She pulled her wrinkled t-shirt as she looked around.

They were still at the same place where she had fallen asleep last night: behind a huge rock in the middle of nowhere. The fire pit that Bo had made last night now had nothing but embers left inside. The rolling green that surrounded them was decorated with patches of pale, dry grass. The closer to the direction of the canyon they were heading to, the drier the grass was.

Tamsin stared at those tall seedheads that were bending down along the wind, before she searched for the presence of any zombie dogs. She couldn't find any. In fact there was not a single animal to be seen around them.

If it wasn't for the blood spatters of the torn off furs that were among the grass, she wouldn't believe what a nightmare last night had been.

As the image of Bo holding the torch and coming at her on the pink bike came to her, Tamsin quickly glanced at the bike lying beside them. Then she frowned at the back of Bo's index finger. The burn there had turned into bright red, with a cluster of blisters.

"How could you be so clumsy, hmm?" Tamsin drawled.

"Because I was too concerned that you might have already become dog food?" Bo replied.

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "You should squeeze them," she said as she pointed at the blisters with her chin. "It would heal faster."

"Yeah, squeeze them with these?" Bo showed Tamsin her dirty, bloody hands. "I think I have a better chance surviving if I don't touch them."

Tamsin sighed. "You decided to come all the way here to save your girl, but you haven't packed even a small bottle of alcohol or something?"

"I...used all of it on the torch last night cuz I couldn't get the torch to-anyway, there isn't a single drop left in my bottle," Bo murmured.

Tamsin rolled her eyes and moved closer to Bo. She grabbed the brunette's wounded hand and laid it on her knee. Then, she unzipped the front pocket of her backpack and took out a small flask, a roll of gauze and a sewing kit.

Holding Bo's hand in hers while trying not to pay any attention of how soft or warm it was, she tilted the flask and poured some vodka on the brunette's wound. Gently and slowly, she wiped Bo's injured finger clean with a piece of gauze.

She took out a short, sharp needle and sanitized it with a lighter. Slowly, she punctured the blisters and drained them by gently pressing on the side to force the fluid out. After all blisters were drained, she applied a thick layer of antibiotic cream before wrapping Bo's finger nicely with gauze.

"It's...ummm...done," she murmured, finding it impossible for her to let Bo's hand go. She nervously licked her lips and looked up, immediately lost herself in the brunette's eyes.

Enthralled by the dancing sunlight in those brown eyes, Tamsin suddenly found her throat dry and her heart stop.

She wanted to turn away, but how could she? How could she turn away from those eyes? How could she, when drops of the sun rippled in them. There was something there, something subtle, behind the teasing smile, behind the brightness. There was something that made her lungs clench and her breath gone.

Tamsin let out a desperate gasp, unable to stop herself from leaning in. She inhaled Bo. She inhaled the smell of fire and heat. She inhaled the smell of the sun, the wind, the air, and the grass.

To her, Bo smelled like summer. The damn summer, the hottest season. Just the slightest inhale would surely get one's lungs scorched and heart blazed.

Tamsin inched forward, about to touch Bo's lips with her own. She paused, though, when the corner of her eyes caught something bright.

She looked down, finding herself awkwardly staring at the brunette's cleavage. It took her a few seconds to realize that there was something lighting up and going out under Bo's clothes.

"Your boobs are blinking," she blurted, too distracted by Bo's slightly heaving chest to form the proper description.

"What?" Bo whispered, her voice a little husky and completely absent minded.

"Your-umm...your whatever is blinking," Tamsin tried.

Bo didn't respond. Instead, she looked blankly into the blonde's eyes. She swallowed for a few times, before she eventually looked down at her own chest. There she saw a spot under the hem of her neckline lighting up for a second or two before going out for the same amount of time.

With her mind elsewhere, she had a hard time figuring out what it was until she tucked her hand into her bra and found the signal detector there. It was then she remember that she had put it there because she had been afraid of losing it when putting it somewhere else.

She took it out and stared at the flashing light for a short while, before she concluded that she must have flipped the switch accidentally.

She grabbed Tamsin's arm and squeezed it. "Tamsin, it's blinking! It's blinking!" She exclaimed, her voice shaking a little.

"Didn't I just tell you that?" Tamsin smirked. The brunette squeezed her hard without saying a word.

Tamsin put her backpack on and raised on her feet slowly. She leaned against the rock as she watched Bo bouncing back and forth in front of her, laughing, giggling, mumbling while trying to figure out which direction would give the device a more frequent flash.

She saw tears in Bo's eyes, and a corner of her heart clenched. The dull pain made her fingertips quiver, but she curled her lips into a smile when Bo turned back at her.

"Figured out which direction we should go yet?" Tamsin asked.

"Yeah," Bo murmured, nodding. She took a deep breath, checked the device again, and said "this way" while heading to the northeast.

* * *

They walked for hours. The land bore less and less green, till it became completely barran. The hard surface of the rocky ground couldn't even hold a quarter inch of dirt, let alone vegetations.

The wind seemed to have stood still, and the hot air was too thick to breathe, but they kept trekking until they reached a long, deep canyon.

Bo took a look around, and saw canyons after canyons in front of them. The entire landscape looked as if someone had hammered the earth till it eventually cracked.

She looked down at the canyon that was in front of them, finding it funny that lots of trees and greens grew at the bottom of it. A river ran through the bottom, roaring.

Bo held the device and walked along the canyon in both directions until she found a spot where the signal was the strongest.

She stared at the twenty feet gap between her and the other side of the canyon, before she turned to Tamsin for help.

"Under, or beyond?" The blonde asked simply, pointing at the bottom of the canyon then at the other side of it.

Bo sighed and shook her head. "I...can't tell."

"Well, either way we'll have to go down first," Tamsin said, narrowing her eyes at the sun before looking down.

"Go-go down?" Bo murmured, confused.

"There's only one way to get to the other side. We have to climb down first, then up," Tamsin explained as she headed to the left.

"Oh," Bo replied, immediately catching up. She scuttle behind Tamsin for a short while, before she paused and asked, "climb down how?"

"Well, there's certainly a fast, easy way," Tamsin smirked at the brunette after turning around.

"Like…?" Bo hummed, wiping her sweat off her chin with the back of her hand. "If you are talking about rock climbing, I suck at it."

"How about shoving your ass over the edge and watching you land on your face?"

Bo gave the giggling blonde a punch that was heavy enough to make Tamsin step back. "Seriously, Tamsin," she hissed. "How do we get down?"

Tamsin shook her head, chuckles still coming out from her mouth. "You don't see...stairs, ladders, anything?"

Bo frowned. At first she thought the blonde was teasing her again, since all she could see was the reddish surface of the inside of the canyon. It took her quite a while to notice a thin, gray line far away from them.

She narrowed her eyes and stared at it. It looked like a long ladder with steep, narrow steps. "Why would there be-I mean, the ladder?"

"Some cave down there were formed during some...ancient earthquake or something, and a lot of people came over to study them," Tamsin explained. "Anyway, someone built it to reach the very bottom of the canyon. There are ladders on both sides of the major ones, so…."

"Oh," Bo murmured, nodding. She paused, before she turned to the blonde. "It's great that you are here with me, Tamsin," she said, smiling.

Tamsin heard all the sincerity in that voice. She saw the dancing sun in those brown eyes. A rush made her heart go crazy. She swallowed hard and turned away.

"Come one, sweetheart," she said, heading to the ladder while commanding her heart to slow down.

* * *

Slowly they climbed down the ladder, watching out from dangers and paying attention to where their feet landed.

When they reached the bottom of the canyon, the light on Bo's device almost stayed on instead of flashing, and that made Bo excited.

She looked around, searching for anything that would interest her. She scanned the river, the trees, and the rocks, till a strange clicking sound caught her attention.

She walked towards it, holding her knife up. From the shadow that was cast from behind her, she knew the blonde was watching her back, and that calmed her pounding heart.

Circling to the behind of a huge rock looking like a monolith, she finally figure out that the sound had been coming from under the water. It seemed that something was banging into the lower part of the rock that was submerged in the river.

A net weaved with foliage, twigs and dirt floated there, covering whatever it was under. Bo reached in and pulled the thing out with her empty hand.

It was a military helmet. It had been trapped in dead tree roots underneath the water, and the current forced it to move forward but was unable to carry it away, therefore causing it to bang into the rock.

Bo examined the helmet. When she saw a few painted letters on the helmet, her heart slammed violently against her chest.

An "M" immediately followed by an "a" were the only three readable ones. The other letters were gone, possibly scratched out by the abrasion between the rock and the helmet. She tried to figure out if the first one was a "K", but she couldn't be fure.

"What is this?" Tamsin asked as she grabbed the helmet. She checked the letters, before she flipped it in her hands and examined the inside.

"There's an army number or whatever stuff," she told Bo as she pointed at a string of numbers.

Bo gave her an absentminded nod, too anxious to pay attention to some numbers. She ran along the side of the river back and forth, trying to determine which way to go, but both directions seemed to be the wrong way since the light would go out for a bit once she was away from where she found the helmet.

She tried a few times, before she went back to the monolith rock. _Where is it?_ She asked herself, looking around desperately.

After a while, she noticed a creek a few feet away from her. It seemed to have come out from behind a fallen tree.

She rushed to the fallen tree, and found a patch of shrubs behind it. A cool, almost freezing breeze came to her.

 _Where is it from?_ She thought as she curiously squeezed herself through the thorny branches. Then, she realized that there was a cave behind all the shrubs, but its entrance couldn't be seen from the outside because of the lush greens.

She looked down at her device. The light was on, as if it would never go out.

Bo turned to find Tamsin, only to realize that the blonde was following her closely. Together they stepped into the cave.

A big hole on the top let the sunlight come through, illuminating everything inside. The creek, which had been coming out from another dark cave, peacefully travelled through a corner of the cave. A few thin, pale bushes grew along it, clustering a pile of trash of some kind.

Part of the trash pile was submerged in the water. Comparing to the dancing sunlight on the surface of the creek, the pile seemed to be too dark. The flickering light rendered a corner of something behind the trash pile.

When Bo realized that it had the same camo pattern as the helmet she had just found, she swallowed hard and rushed over breathlessly.

Behind the pile, there was a person in a full set of military uniform lying there. Bo quickly grabbed that person's shoulder and flipped them around.

A pale, lifeless female face entered her vision. Her tousled hair clung to her skin tightly, looking like some sort of seaweed. Although that face had been streaked by dirt, water and crumbled leaves, Bo still recognized her.

"Kenzi…?" She murmured, holding her breath while touching the girl's face with her trembling fingers. Tears stung her eyes when Kenzi's cold skin chilled her bones.

She threw her backpack aside and tucked one arm under Kenzi's back to lift her. Half carrying, half pulling, she let Kenzi rest on her lap. She called her name, tapped her face, held her hand to her chest, shook her, yelled, cried, begged, but the girl just wouldn't wake up.

"She's not...she's not-" Bo mumbled as she raised to look at Tamsin who stood beside her, unable to finish her sentence. Sobs and whimpers clogged her throat, and tears ran down her face.

Tamsin took a deep breath and turn away a little. The pain in Bo's eyes was too much for her to bear. Then, she got down on one knee and pressed two fingers on the side of Kenzi's neck.

She couldn't find a pulse. _How the hell would that chip still be working if she's dead?_ She asked herself as she moved her fingers in front of Kenzi's nose. She couldn't feel her breathing either.

Tamsin bit bottom lip, frowning at the name "Kenzi" sewed on the girl's uniform. She exhaled and grabbed Kenzi's collar to rip her clothes open.

She lowered her head, pressing one ear tightly against Kenzi's chest and held her breath.

At first she heard nothing, but just as she was about to give up, a slight, weak flutter came to her.

Then it was gone, as if it was never there. Tamsin pulled away briefly, before she leaned in and listened again.

She waited patiently, with her eyes closed and her breath held. She didn't know how long it took, but she eventually heard another heartbeat. Then, nothing for a long time, too long as an interval between two heartbeats of anyone. She didn't think it would be possible, but the heartbeat came back again. Weak, almost non-existing, but it was there.

Tamsin reached for Kenzi's pulse again while her ear was still on the girl's chest. Soon she noticed that whenever she heard a flutter, she would feel a slight pulse on the tip of her finger.

"I think she's still alive," she finally concluded, though wasn't sure how it would be possible for anyone's heart to beat that slowly and weakly.

Bo stared at her with her teary eyes, unable to believe her. She tried to say something but her voice was gone.

"Seriously, I think that she might still be alive," Tamsin repeated.

Bo hesitantly leaned in to listen, and when she heard the weak beat, she choked in her own tears. "She's alive! She's alive!" She shouted loudly, the echoes of her voice bouncing against the walls of the cave.

"She's alive!" She repeated, wiping her tears off with her hands yet unable to stop more from coming out. She pulled Kenzi to her chest and held her tightly, laughters bursting through her throat with slight gags.

Tamsin look at the brunette who seemed to be a happy mess now. A smile of joy and bitterness appeared on her face. When Bo raised to look at her, she curled her lips up while a painful rush seized her heart.

Still on her knees, Tamsin leaned in and grabbed Bo's face. She pulled her in, almost forcefully, and crushed her lips on Bo's.

She held her breath, drowning in that sweetness, in those salty tears and in the taste of happiness and excitement. She savored the brunette, inhaling everything of her.

Bo reciprocated her almost immediately, cupping her face with one of her cold hands. She nibbled the blonde's lips as if they were the most delicious treat she had ever had in her entire life.

Both revelled in the kiss, enjoying the very feel of their lips pressing together and the tips of their tongues touching gently until they had to break the kiss because their lungs started to protest.

They panted, looking at each other. Both are little startled, but neither pulled away.

Tamsin stared at Bo's swollen lips for a long time, before she looked down at Kenzi. "I...ummm...I don't-I guess we should take her to a doctor or something. I mean, it's kind of-I mean-" She mumbled, knowing that they should take care of the unconscious girl first yet really wanting to continue that kiss.

Bo nodded as she licked her lips. She held Kenzi's waist with one hand, and put the girl's right arm around her neck with the other to pull her up.

"Here," Tamsin suggested as she turned around, preparing to carry Kenzi on her back.

"Are you sure?" Bo asked. "I mean, she's petite, but we have a lot of steps to go."

"Just shut up and hand her over," Tamsin commanded, though her tone soft as the mist above the river.

"Fine," Bo murmured. She put Kenzi's arms around the blonde's neck, and tied the girl tightly to Tamsin's back with a rope.

"Alright, let's go," Tamsin said as she carried Kenzi towards the stairs.

* * *

It took them forever to transport Kenzi outside the canyon. The moment Tamsin finished the last step of the stairs, she kneeled down and let out the breath she had been holding for too long.

She slowly untied the rope and let Kenzi roll down from her back and into Bo's arms. She gasped, sprawling on the ground afterwards.

"Oh crap, I think I left my bag down there," Bo murmured after she had checked Kenzi's heartbeat again.

"Well go get it then," Tamsin said breathlessly as she threw her hand at the canyon. She shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand and took a glance at Bo. "Relax, I won't eat her while you are gone."

Bo giggled and punched Tamsin's shoulder softly. She sucked her bottom lip and held Tamsin's sweaty hand in hers, as if she was about to say something. She ended up mouthing a "thank you" to the blonde before she left.

Tamsin watched Bo walking away, her heart pounding so hard inside her chest. So hard it made her fingertips tingle and her ears deaf.

She sighed as she stared at the bright sun, till her vision started to blur and tears filled her eyes. She felt so contented, like she had found the best of her life. She was beyond exhausted, sweaty, dirty and with bruises everywhere, yet that joy overwhelmed her and she just didn't want to move at all.

After glancing at Kenzi again, Tamsin closed her eyes for a while. When she opened them again, the sun had hidden behind a thick layer of clouds. She noticed a particular piece of cloud floating. An almost transparent cloud with a rainbow color.

She stared at the intently, until something suddenly occurred to her. The still air, the heat, the fleeing animals, and now _that_ cloud.

She rolled on her knees and rushed to the edge of the canyon. "Bo!" She yelled, forcing air out from her chest. "Get back! Get the fuck back!" Her voice echoed in the canyon, and it scared herself because it was fueled with too much fear.

Right after that, the world trembled, and she fell down. Earthquake shattered the world. The ground broke into pieces, some of them rising while others sinking.

Tamsin yelled, but since the whole world was trembling, who could have possibly heard her?

Tears burst out from her eyes as she crawled towards the edge of the canyon, only to find that the entire place had collapsed completely.

She swallowed hard and caught Kenzi, who got thrown down right into her arms. She covered the unconscious girl with her own body in reflex as she tried to hold both of them still.

However, she failed. The elevated ground forced them to roll down. She tried to grab something just so they wouldn't be buried by the landslides, but everything was falling down.

As her waist crashed into a tree trunk, she bit back an agonizing moan. Then something hit her head, and knocked her out.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. Life has been a bit crazy lately :)**

 **So here an earthquake happened to them...The signs I mentioned in the story are said to be signs before big earthquakes. They probably don't always appear together, but it's for the story.**

 **Thanks for reading :D**


	9. Chapter 9 - Settlement

Chapter 9

At first, it was a buzz in the background in Tamsin's head, clouded by sharp pain, downpour which felt both hot and cold on her skin, voices distant yet loud, and a fever that made her feel like she was burnt in flames.

The darkness seemed to have lasted forever, and the buzz would come and go. She didn't really pay attention to it at all, until everything else had faded away while it got louder and louder.

Eventually, she started to hear words. Incoherent, flat words, like "please", "all" and "filter", or maybe it was "shelter"? She couldn't tell. She drifted in and out of her sleep, occasionally feeling a warm hand or a pinch.

She wanted to wake up. She wanted to yell, to move or at least to make a sound, but she couldn't do anything. She couldn't move a single finger. All her voice was stuck in her throat, but she couldn't get it out.

The buzz continued, now turning into a shriek siren. Suddenly all kinds of different sounds poured into her ears, people yelling, wheels rolling, crying. Among them there were those flat words again. She spent quite some time to assemble them into meaningful speech.

The moment she had realized that it was someone broadcasting a warning message, her eyes shot open.

She reached for her weapon, but accidentally punched on something hard. She cursed, and struggled to sit up, but her body seemed not to follow her mind.

She gasped, squirming. The moment she had found herself in a bed buried under layers of blankets, she paused.

She licked her parched lips as she quickly examined herself. Her waist was wrapped in gauze, and her left ankle had a cast on and was lifted up away from the bed in straps.

She found the handheld control dangling on the side of her bed, so she hit the nurse call button. After getting no answer, she tried all other buttons and quickly figured out that it wasn't working at all.

She lay back, panting, unable to believe doing something so simple could have drained her like this.

There, the broadcast came again. "Residents of the northeast building 1, 2, 3 and 4, please seek shelter immediately. Repeat, there is a zombie attack on the northeast side of the settlement, please seek shelter immediately. If you are a Defense Force member, please report to your unit asap."

 _Great, so I am still in the damn zombie apocalypse._ Tamsin thought as she carefully looked around.

She found herself in a big patient room. There were nothing but two rows of beds aligned along the walls, each bed with a night stand on its side.

Only two beds were occupied, hers, and another one in the corner of the room with some old dude lying in it unconcious.

 _Shit. Where am I?_ Tamsin asked herself, though the printed pattern of a tree, a man and a bird on the sheets sort of answered her question already.

She knew that this was definitely a government settlement. She just didn't know how she had gotten here, what had happened after the earthquake, and more importantly, where Bo and Kenzi were.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, forcing the memory of the collapsing canyon out of her mind. She raised to free her casted leg from the straps first. Before she had succeeded, though, a man in a nurse suit came in.

He gaped at her, almost dropping his tray. Soon a smile appeared on his face. "Hey, you are awake!" He exclaimed, rushing to her bedside. "We didn't-I mean the doctor was like _oh she won't wake up any time soon_ but hey you are awake!"

A slight nod and a tight smile were all Tamsin could give him. He smiled back at her warmly and checked her fluids. He was interrupted a couple of times, when some panicking people storming in asking for directions.

"I'm sorry," the man told Tamsin as he tucked her back under the blankets. "There's a zombie attack and...quite a few are injured."

Tamsin nodded. "Yeah," she muttered.

"I'll go get the doctor for you, okay?" The man told her softly. Then he left.

A few minutes later, a blonde woman appeared at the doorway. She was in a washed out white lab coat whose hems had turned yellow and the corners of the pockets frayed. She had a stethoscope hanging on her neck, and a clipboard in her hand.

Quickly walking to Tamsin's side, she checked her IVs. "I'm Dr. Lauren Lewis," she told Tamsin as she carefully checked her vitals. "How do you feel?"

"I've been worse," Tamsin replied simply.

"How would you describe your pain, on a scale of 1 to 10?" Lauren asked as she listened to Tamsin's heartbeat.

"Ummm…probably 0, if not below?"

The doctor frowned slightly while helping Tamsin to turn on her side. "Inhale…" she instructed as she placed the diaphragm on Tamsin's back. "And...exhale...good...so you don't feel any pain?"

"Not really, no."

"Not from your ankle? It was fractured," Lauren explained as she pointed at Tamsin's ankle with her pen.

"I don't feel anything," Tamsin said. "I mean, the cast is heavy…I guess whatever narcotics you gave me is really working then."

"Actually, we didn't give you anything for the pain. Not today," Lauren replied as she resumed examining Tamsin. "Could you tell me your name?"

"Do I have to?" Tamsin rolled her eyes.

"No you don't have to," Lauren replied. "I can still call you patient X, as I wrote down on your medical record when we admitted you. However, if you want to stay here, you'll need to provide a name to the registration office later." She paused for a second or two, staring at Tamsin. "Is there any reason you don't want to tell me your name?"

Tamsin sighed. "Tamsin."

Lauren sighed in defeat. "Okay, Tamsin No-Last-Name…" She murmured as she wrote it down on her paperwork. "Good news is, you are doing great. Let's see if you can take some food, and then we'll do an x-ray of your ankle, okay?"

"Wow, food. Any chance you got some medium rare ribeyes, cuz I could probably eat like 5 of them right now," Tamsin joked, and the doctor snorted.

"Liquid food first," Lauren drawled. "We need to make sure that your stomach can hold it before you try something heavy. You haven't eaten real food for weeks."

"Weeks?" Tamsin frowned. "How long have I been here?"

"3 weeks," the doctor said simply. She later added, "24 days, to be exact."

Tamsin licked her lips, wondering how 3 weeks of her life just elapsed and all she had were broken memories of high body temperature, rain, light and voices. "How..." she swallowed hard. "How did I get here?"

"The rescue team pulled you out from the earthquake site, about 30 miles north west from here," Lauren explained.

"Ummm...the rescue team?"

"Yes. After the earthquake, the settlement sent a rescue team over. They found 3 survivors, you, and two other women."

"3 survivors huh?" Tamsin repeated. That number made her heart pound violently against her chest. She took a deep breath, and continued, "where...I mean...who...I mean, where are they?"

"The other two? They are both in ICU now. One is still in critical condition. The other-" Lauren suddenly stopped. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be discussing this with you."

"No, no, it's okay. We...ummm...they are my friends," Tamsin blurted. "I...I just want to know if they are okay."

"Well, let's just say that we are monitoring them closely," Lauren told her.

"Can I maybe...see them or something?"

The doctor pursed her lips and pondered for a long time. "I suppose you could, after your try eating, and the x-ray." She paused for a bit as she looked around, before she continued, "actually, I do have a few questions for you, about that girl in military uniform-"

"-Kenzi?" Tamsin interrupted her. "What about her?"

"Is she...what's her..." Lauren mumbled. It seemed that she could not form a proper question. She eventually said, "when we found her, she was unconscious, and her vitals were...let's just say that she was ummm-"

"-like she was dead but really wasn't dead?"

"Yeah, that."

"I have no idea. We found her like that," Tamsin shrugged, surprised by how sore her shoulders were.

Lauren nodded, her mind elsewhere. "I'll...go get you some food, and we'll talk about this later," she said as she squeezed Tamsin's shoulder firmly. Then, she left.

A while later, the male nurse came back with a food tray. He first offered Tamsin some diluted fruit juice. After making sure that she could take it just fine, he helped her sit up and pulled a tray table over for her. He offered to feed her, but she refused, so he left the food for her and left.

Tamsin raised her eyebrows at the food in the tray: a bowl of jello, a bowl of beef soup with no meat nor vegetables in it, a small bottle of milk, and a small bowl of very thin porridge.

After she practiced for a while to hold the spoon steadily, she tried the jello first. The taste of it was quite bland, comparing to what she had had before the zombie outbreak, but she didn't plan to complain at all. She savored the slight sweetness before swallowing slowly.

While eating, she started to process all the informations she had learned in the past 10 minutes.

She was weak and consumed, but her heart was still beating strong. She still had all her limbs and digits, which she considered a very good news. However, the best news to her, was that the other two women had been rescued too.

She couldn't wait to see Bo. Just the thought of holding the brunette's hand made her choke in her own tears.

* * *

Tamsin had her food, and then she spent a little time to rest. When she woke up, the nurse wheeled her to the x-ray room.

Lauren examined her thoroughly. Then, it was a long wait in the dim room watching the doctor studying those images.

When Lauren finally finished, she turned on the light, and sat down in front of Tamsin. "It looks like your ankle is all healed," she said, a lot of hesitation in her voice. "That's...great news, I guess."

"I'm sensing a _but_ there," Tamsin commented.

"No but, there's not but," Lauren immediately replied. She trailed off, staring at the imaging results.

After a while, she added, "it's just that...normally, that kind of fracture should take 6 weeks or more to-I mean, you've only been here for 3 and half weeks and…."

"Maybe I just heal fast?" Tamsin shrugged.

"I guess...it could be that?" Lauren murmured. "I mean, you've been healing faster than...anyone I've ever seen. All your injuries are pretty much gone now."

Tamsin nodded absentmindedly."So when can I see my friends?"

"So when can I see my friends?"

Lauren was about to answer her, but before she did, a nurse stormed in.

"Doctor Lewis," the nurse called breathlessly as she clung to the edge of the door.

"What's wrong, Amy?" Lauren asked as she stood up and stepped forward.

"The...umm...the patient in ICU," the nurse said with heavy pants. "She...her heart rate...dropping fast...they can't…we can't…."

Lauren dashed out without waiting for the nurse to finish her sentence. Tamsin immediately wheeled herself out, following the doctor.

She could hear the sound of the air being pushed into her lungs, like a dying man's breath. Her muscles were protesting, screaming in pain and exhaustion. She could barely keep herself in the chair, but she just kept going.

She just kept going while ignoring how painful her heart was clenching right now.

* * *

The ICU was on the other end of the hallway. It was just a section of several patient rooms with an extra nurse station.

When they arrived, it had already turned into a mess there. Nurses and doctors crammed in one room, trying to resuscitate someone.

Lauren joined them immediately, and Tamsin tried to go in with her. When she saw the flatline on the monitor, she panicked. Having forgotten that she had a cast on her ankle, she stood up, stumbled, and fell, making a loud noise.

No one had paid attention to her though the flat sound of the heart rate monitor seemed to have drowned everything.

Tamsin struggled to stand up. She eventually made it and leaned against the wall. She knew she shouldn't go in, but she was dying to know if that woman in there was okay.

The flat sound continued, and they were still doing CPR. A nurse came to Tamsin, wanting to get her away from the room, but Tamsin wouldn't let her.

Then, they both heard one of the doctors announce the time of death, and Tamsin suddenly had the strength to push the nurse away from her.

She stumbled into the room, squeezing her way through the people in there. She grabbed the edge of the bed before she fell, and looked down at the lifeless face of the woman.

When she realized that it was not Bo nor Kenzi, but a woman she had never known before, she choked, suddenly not knowing what to feel or how to feel. A nurse dragged her back before she collapsed on the floor.

The nurse guided her outside the room, and sat her down on the wheelchair. Tamsin watched them taking the body way. It was then she felt the cold sweat on her back.

Lauren came to her, and stood beside her. "I'm sorry, we can't-" she said to Tamsin. "I'm so sorry."

Tamsin swallowed hard and looked back at her blankly. It took her a while to finally get her voice back. "You don't need to be," she muttered. "I don't know who she is...was."

"Oh," Lauren murmured, beyond surprised. She stared at Tamsin and said, "I thought you said they were your friends?"

"I meant those two who were with me when the earthquake took place. The two who got pulled out with me by the rescue team," Tamsin said. "Where are they?"

"Well, they are...one is in room 104," Lauren pointed at the room across the hallway, and Tamsin was too anxious to notice the weird tone in the doctor's voice.

"Can I see her?"

"Sure, of course," Lauren told her, before she pushed Tamsin to room 104. "Just...I shouldn't let you go in, so…."

Tamsin barely managed a nod, before she glanced at the person lying in the bed.

It was Kenzi, and the output on the monitor seemed to be stable. That made Tamsin sigh with a relief. "She umm...is she…?"

"She's stable. She's been drifting in and out, weak, but overall she's doing fine," Lauren said. "I'll probably move her to the regular patient room in a few days."

"Okay, cool," Tamsin said as looked around in the hallway. After having found that all the other ICU rooms were empty, she asked, "where's the other one?"

"Umm..." Lauren said, a little confused at first. "Didn't you just…." She finished her sentence by pointing at the room where the other patient had just died.

"No, no, not her," Tamsin explained, waving her hands over her own face. "I mean, my other...my other friend, who were also at the earthquake site. A brunette, slender, long hair, pretty. Where is she?"

A look of revelation fleeted across the doctor's face, immediately followed by heavy sympathy. "There were someone else who was with you during the earthquake?" Lauren asked.

"Yes, her name is Bo," Tamsin said, somehow her heart started pounding violently again. This time though, it was fueled by nothing but panic and pain.

"Well..." Lauren said after a long pause. "We...ummm...the rescue team found 3 survivors. You, the Kenzi girl, and the one who had just...passed away. We don't-I don't think we have another patient who...I don't think we have another one."

"Yes, yes, you do," Tamsin argued. "You sure do, doc. She was with me. She was there too! If they had found me and...and Kenzi, they sure as hell should have found her too. She was right there with me! Her name is Bo!"

Lauren opened her mouth, but couldn't make a single sound at first. "Of course," she slurred. "Let me check with the rescue team, and I'll get back to you on that, okay? Why don't you go get some rest, and...you know, you really need food and rest."

"I'm alright," Tamsin said, her voice tight. "I just need to see her."

"Of course you do. Look, maybe she was already discharged. Maybe they sent her to another...I mean, maybe someone else admitted her and I didn't know. I'll make sure that-let me get back to you on that, okay?"

* * *

A nurse escorted Tamsin back to the patient room, and made sure she had more food. Then she left.

Tamsin sat in her bed, her back pressing against the headframe, and her arms lolled. She sat there for hours, numbly staring at a water leaking mark on the wall.

The air seemed to have stood still, and the ambient noise outside sounded so far away. For a moment she couldn't tell if this was just a nightmare. Or maybe that searing kiss she had with Bo was nothing but a sweet dream.

Fear drowned her. It was something that she thought she had overcome a long time ago. She couldn't remember when was the last time she had felt her heart dangling in her chest like this. She couldn't remember when was the last time her fear had pained her, strangled her and suffocated her. She couldn't remember when was the last time she had prayed in vain while knowing there must be no hope at all.

Lauren eventually stopped by. "I checked with the rescue team leader. She said that they found you and Kenzi near the canyon region, and then on their way back they found the other...the one who had passed away. They didn't...they didn't find any other survivors, but...just don't lose hope, okay?"

Tamsin could only give her a nod. She stared at the doctor numbly, watching her lips moving, but every word that Lauren said to her just sounded like a meaningless buzz now.

Lauren left shortly, and Tamsin's heart seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden. Her chest now was hollow, overwhelmed by despair.

She curled up in the corner of the bed, and finally gave up on holding in her sobs. She tried to control her volume, or how fast her tears would fall, but she could do neither.

Each sob drained a bit of her life out of her. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." she slurred, her voice trembling and gagged, her tears so bitter than she could no longer breathe.

After all those subtle, warm things, after each and every moment that she had had with Bo, she was alone again, and that thought tore her apart.

* * *

Despite Lauren's warning, Tamsin went to talk to the rescue team members herself the next day. She had talked to every single one of them, but no one had seen Bo.

She checked with the settlement registration office, the Defense Force recruiters, and anyone who could possibly have access to some sort of a list of the residents of the settlement to see if anyone had seen, or heard of Bo.

It was nothing but disappointment after disappointment, and the little spark of hope of hers had gone weaker and weaker as the time went by.

She was no longer able to convince herself that someone in this settlement had seen Bo yet none of them wanted to tell her that. The only choice she had, was to visit the canyon area. Not so much of a hope to see Bo there, but rather a closure for herself.

While receiving her physical therapy, Tamsin gathered items for her new survival pack, since she had lost all her belongings to the earthquake. Slowly she gathered clothes, sleeping bag, a machete, some food, and everything she could think of and get her hands on.

During her recovery, Kenzi got transferred to regular patient room and was put on the bed beside hers. The girl still drifted in and out all the time, and sometimes in the middle of the night, she'd whisper Bo's name unconsciously.

Those soft whispers shattered Tamsin's heart into a million pieces. One day Kenzi woke up for a few minutes, and seemed to have temporarily gained her lucid mind back. She mumbled something about going back to the house she and Bo had resided, but before Tamsin could talk to her, she went back asleep again.

It was then Tamsin had made the decision to take Kenzi with her. She had no idea why she would do that. Having Kenzi travelling along with her would be a thousand times harder than her leaving alone, but she just couldn't leave Kenzi behind.

Maybe it was because Bo had come all the way here to look for her. Maybe it was because Kenzi was the only one who had been close to Bo, close to the ray of light that Tamsin had once held in her palms before it had slipped away.

She just needed someone to remind her that the very existence of Bo wasn't her hallucination. She just needed to be constantly reminded that Bo was very much real, because memories were all she had now. And one day, when they started to fade, she'd start to question herself if anything that had touched her heart had been real.

* * *

She had talked to Lauren about leaving, but someone from the settlement governor's office had come to order her to stay.

 _Fine._ Tamsin thought while rolling her eyes at the man. _Like you could stop me_.

After she was fully recovered, she started to plan their escape. She figured that she could easily sneak out during a zombie attack because every time that happened, the settlement would become a mess.

Taking Kenzi with her wasn't an easy task, but since she had found a tricycle trailer in the recycle center and repaired it, it became doable.

Her last task was to get Kenzi some medication that she would need on the way. She knew Lauren had kept them in her office, so once she had figured out the shift change time of the doctors and nurses, she took the chance to sneak into Lauren's office at one night.

She hand copied Kenzi's prescription first and put the copy into her bag. Then she grabbed everything she needed from the medicine cabinet.

Before leaving, she hesitated if she should leave Lauren a note. The doctor and her team had been quite nice to her, and she felt guilty if they should worry about her.

She hadn't made up her mind yet, when she heard the sound of the key being pushed into the lock.

 _Oh shit._ Tamsin thought as she quickly got into a big two-door cabinet in the corner and closed the doors, leaving only a tiny crack between them.

She had thought maybe it was Lauren coming over to get something and then the doctor would leave shortly. To her surprise, though, two people walked in.

The light was turned on, and Tamsin took a peek. She saw Lauren and another woman standing in front of the desk. Lauren was in her lab coat as usual, and the other woman was wearing a dress that was apparently tailored to her and a pair of high heels so high that they would make running away from zombies impossible. Her perfume was strong, almost making Tamsin sneeze.

"So, how's your research going, doctor?" The other woman asked Lauren. Her voice was full of seduction, yet there was nothing but nonchalance underneath.

"It's going, just slow, governor," Lauren's voice came, bland. She paused for a little, before she added, "I wish I could say that I need more of zombies, but…." She trailed off, and Tamsin wondered if she really had noticed a hint of guilt in that voice.

"Please," the woman, who Lauren addressed as governor, said, "anything you need, Lauren. Oh and you can call me Evony."

Then, the woman turned to her side a little, giving Tamsin a chance to see her face. She was a beautiful woman, with long, wavy hair and sparkling dark eyes. Her face was rather pale, though. There was something in her eyes that made Tamsin's uncomfortable.

"I didn't really make much progress, if that's what you want to know," Lauren murmured.

"Gee, relax, doctor. I'm not here to pressure you. I'm just doing a bit small talk."

"Oh, okay," Lauren replied, pulling her lips into an awkward smile.

"So, I was just wondering...how is that little patient of yours doing?" Evony asked as she took a step forward towards Lauren.

"I'm afraid that you'll have to be more specific," Lauren replied calmly and fell back a little to keep the distance between her and Evony. "I have many patients, Evony."

"I was talking about that...the no-heartbeat one," Evony clarified.

"She's doing great, very stable," Lauren answered simply. "Heart rate is normal now. Everything looks good. She just weak...it'll take a while for her to recover fully but umm...yeah she's doing very well."

"Okay, good, see, there's a progress," the governor praised with an affected tone. "Have you figured out why she was like that when they found her?"

"No," Lauren quickly replied. "I haven't. It could be some sort of...dormancy under a rare condition, at least that's my theory so far."

"Dormancy? Okay," Evony said. She gave Lauren a smile which looked comforting but somehow creeped Tamsin out a little. "Anyway, I was just curious," she added.

"She's doing great," Lauren repeated. "If...that's what you want to know."

"So, where is my..." Evony asked, and Tamsin saw that instead of finishing her sentence, the governor just tilted her head to the side a little and looked at Lauren.

The doctor licked her bottom lip. For a moment, Tamsin thought Lauren would reject Evony's request, but the doctor just opened a fridge beside her, and took out something that looked like a box.

She handed it to Evony, and the two of them battered for a couple more minutes before Evony left.

Lauren stayed a little longer. She looked frustrated and exhausted. She organized her desk for a bit, before she opened the door to the side room and entered it.

Tamsin knew that it was a small morgue where Lauren and few other doctors would dissect and study some zombie bodies. She could hear Lauren pulling out the body drawers and slamming them back in loudly.

After a while, Lauren came out, the look on her face like a part of her had died inside. She turned off the lights and left.

Tamsin made sure that the doctor was gone, before she came out from the cabinet. Out of curiosity, she opened the fridge and took a look inside, but other than some medication vials and bottles, she didn't see anything abnormal.

She shook her head and closed it. Then, she snuck back to the patient room.

All she had to do now, was wait.

* * *

 **A/N: finally, an update. This is a sad chapter, I know, but it's for the story. When the show screws us over and over, we want to see some fluff, and I promise fluff is on its way (it might take a while to arrive but it'll be here eventually) .**


	10. Chapter 10 - Kenzi

**Chapter 10 - Kenzi**

As their car took a sharp turn and entered a dirt road in the middle of the endless grasslands, Kenzi slapped Bo's arm frantically and yelled "Bo-bo, look! Look! A coyote! Did you see that" while pointing to the outside.

"Stop hitting me, Kenzi! I'm driving!" Bo complained softly. She quickly turned to her right and took a glance, but the only thing she saw were endless rolling greens under the bright summer sky. She could see a few black spots afar under the shadow of the clouds. She assumed that those were bisons and they were just chilling out.

"I don't see no coyote," she said, turning back to focus on driving. "Are you sure it's not a rock or something?"

"It was a coyote, okay?" Kenzi argued. She stuck her head out and looked back, but it was too far behind. She couldn't tell if the grey spot she was seeing was the animal or something else.

She sighed, and started to play with the radio channel knob. However, she couldn't find a single channel. There was nothing but a silent buzz coming out from the radio, with an occasional burst of advertisement.

The white noise slowly drowned everything, and made her eyelids heavy. She heard Bo hum something, maybe an old song that they both loved, but she couldn't be sure because her best friend's voice suddenly sounded so, so far away.

Slowly she slipped into her dreams, but somehow she kept getting disturbed because the car went over bumps so frequently that it seemed like they were going over a bump back and forth, back and forth.

Bump. Bump. Bump. She was being thrown up and down. She groaned, grunted and mumbled, telling Bo to slow down, or at least stop driving like Bo intended to let her bite her tongue, but she got not response at all.

Bump. Bump. Bump. She reached for Bo, but touched nothing but a cold, metal bar. That was when she decided to open her eyes and take a look.

Leaves of all shades of red, yellow and orange entered her vision. They fluttered in the wind, like hundreds and thousands of butterflies. The sky high above was clear as crystal and blue as the ocean, with huge clouds floating and swimming in it.

Bump. Bump. Bump. She was thrown up, and immediately she fell back down. It made her butt sore and hurt her back. She knew she was lying on a flat, hard surface of some kind with a few layers of linens in between.

She heard the squeaky sound coming from the vehicle under her. The sound of the gears turning, chains pulling and wheels being forced to turn in the mud and away from the pebbles formed a weird harmony.

Kenzi squirmed under the layers of blankets that had buried her under. She wanted to sit up but couldn't because muscles were too weak and they refused to follow her mind.

She groaned and turned her head, only to see the rusty rails of the trailer she was in. There was a backpack beside her face. A big stainless mug daggles on the shoulder strap. It would occasionally hit the rail, adding an irregular clatter into the symphony.

She gathered every bit of strength she had to raise her head. There she saw a blonde woman riding a tricycle in front of her, and the tricycle was pulling the trailer Kenzi was in.

The back of the woman's neck was reddened by the sunlight, and patches of sweat stains were left on the back of her dark grey tank top. A sheathed machete hung on her belt, swinging back and forth as she rode.

"Hey..." Kenzi murmured, finding her voice shockingly weak and husky. She swallowed for a few times, before she called again, "hello."

The wind drowned her voice immediately, and the blonde just rode on without noticing her.

Kenzi tried to reach the rail. She found it extremely weird that even though her mind was telling her arm to move, all her arm did was jittering.

She kept trying, though, and finally succeeded. She pulled hard to sit up, and wrapped herself in the blankets. "Hey," she called again.

After she had repeated the hellos and heys for a few times, the blonde had finally heard her. The woman stopped pedaling and turned back. "Look who's awake," she commented with a smirk on her face.

Kenzi squinted her eyes and raised her hand to shield them from the blinding sunlight. She looked at the blonde closely through her fingers, before she hesitantly asked, "do I know you?" She thought she might have had some conversation with the other woman at some point, but she wasn't sure if that had been her dream. She tried, but couldn't find a name in her memory that would associate with that face.

The other woman didn't answer her question. She just took a glance at the sun and murmured, "I guess we should take break here."

Curling into the corner of the trailer, Kenzi watched her gathering woods to make a cooking fire right next to the trailer. "My name is-" she murmured.

"-Kenzi," the blonde interrupted her.

"So you do know me, but I don't...I don't think I know your name yet."

"It's Tamsin," the other woman answered simply. She glanced at Kenzi and continued, "are you feeling any pain? Any discomfort? Dizziness or anything?"

Kenzi shook her head. "Just...weak and hungry, I guess," she murmured. After staring at the blonde's face closely, she blurted, "did we...I kinda remember you feeding me food."

"Yeah, I did, cuz you were in and out and couldn't eat on your own," Tamsin told her, "but since you are fully awake now, why don't we see if you could hold a spoon again, hmmm?"

Kenzi nodded as she slowly rolled the corner of the blankets together so she could rest her head on it.

Tamsin didn't say another word. She took out a big mug from her backpack, poured some water into it from a flask, and poured in a bag of white powder.

The powder quickly dissolved, making the liquid thin and opaque. The blonde threw in a bag of beige granules and some dark flakes. She waited patiently, till everything boiled down into a light brown mush. She stirred it with a spoon, and let it sit on the ground for a while to cool it down, before she handed it to Kenzi.

"Eat this," she commanded.

"What is this?" Kenzi asked as she carefully smelled the mush. She smelled dairy and grain, with a hint of meat.

"Just eat it, okay? It's not like it's poisoned or anything," the other woman told her and gave her an eye roll. "You should eat more food so you can heal faster."

Kenzi looked at the mush again and stirred it with the spoon Tamsin had handed her. She carefully tasted a little, and confirmed her guess. It was a mug of milk cereal, with meat flakes and a little bit of fruit bits. Everything was cooked to the point where they just blended together completely.

It was a strange combination, but she didn't plan to complain at all. She ate a spoonful, and her stomach immediately screamed for more. She inhaled everything, and scraped every bit of mush off the mug with her spoon.

Tamsin took the mug and the spoon back, and went to wash it in the creek not far away from them. Kenzi would give her a smile when she turned back to check on the petite girl every time.

She came back quickly and started to cook her own food. Kenzi stared at the burning flames numbly, before she murmured, "I remember...patient beds...all the doctors and nurses and...needles, lots of needles..."

"It's good that you actually remember things," the blonde smirked, before she started to eat her own meal.

"And you a member of the Anti-Zombie Division of the army too?" Kenzi asked as she eyed the other woman. "Are you like transferring me to...a base or something?"

"No, and no," Tamsin replied. "There's no more Anti-Zombie Division. There's no more bases either. Well probably the bases are still there, occupied by different people, or _things_."

Kenzi frowned. "What do you mean by there's no more A.Z.D?"

"It means that there's no more A.Z.D," Tamsin told her. "US army no longer exists. In fact, the US government no longer exists. Our nation has fallen, lady, but don't worry, cuz all the other nations in the world have fallen too. Right now, we only have this bullshit government without border stuff."

When she saw the shocked look on Kenzi's face, she started to explain, "I don't know what happened to you, but it seems that they claimed that you were M.I.A a long time ago. You somehow stayed unconscious under a canyon for years maybe. A lot of shit happened when you were out."

"I don't...understand. What do you mean by I stayed unconscious under a canyon for years, blondie?"

Tamsin sighed. "What was the last thing that you remembered?" She asked.

Kenzi bit her bottom lip and furrowed her eyebrows. She tried to sort out her memories by figuring out which ones were real and which ones were her dreams.

After a while, she said, "I remember...I was with my A.Z.D squad. We were doing our daily sweep, and that day we encountered a huge herd of walkers. The captain made a shitty decision and got us cornered. We tried to call for help but somehow the communication wouldn't go through or something...we retreated into the woods, and soon we were out of ammo, so we started fighting the walkers with knives and rocks, you know, anything we could get our hands on."

Tamsin nodded, and Kenzi took a deep breath before she continued.

"The walkers outnumbered us, and one of them grabbed me. I struggled, and lost my balance. I tumbled downhill and fell into a river, and...I guess I was carried down by the current and fell down along a waterfall maybe? Then...I don't remember much...just bits and pieces I guess, until-" she waved her finger back and forth between her and Tamsin.

"So the last thing you remember is falling down along a waterfall," Tamsin concluded. "Well there was this stream in that cave...maybe the underground stream carried you all the way there or something…."

"What cave? And you said I was unconscious for years?"

"Yep, about 6 years probably, since the government sent your friend, Bo, a notice saying that you were M.I.A 6 years ago," Tamsin said, feeling her heart clench painfully when that name slipped out from her lips.

"What? I was out for 6 years?!" Kenzi exclaimed. "Seriously? 6 years?! Wait, you said Bo. You know Bo?! Is she here? Where is she?"

"No she's not here," Tamsin said, trying to swallow the bitterness back. "She ummm...yeah I met her when she umm...came all the way up here to look for you."

She then briefly explained to Kenzi why Bo had been convinced that she was still alive, and how they had found her.

"Ooookay, so I somehow slept under the bottom of the canyon, inside a cave, for 6 years, but I'm still alive," Kenzi said. "That sounds fake, like totally fake."

"It does, but it's the truth," Tamsin said simply. "The doctors couldn't explain it either. Pretty lame, huh?"

"So where is Bo?" Kenzi pursued. She nearly bit her tongue when she saw the painful look in Tamsin's eyes.

Tamsin pulled the spoon out from her mouth, and licked her lips. "She...after we pulled you out from the canyon, there was this big earthquake and...when it happened, she was still...under the canyon," she explained. After pausing for a long time, she added, "she...you know…didn't get out in time."

An unbearable silence consumed both of them. The petite girl turned sideways as she bit back her tears.

"Why the hell did she come looking for me?!" She eventually squeezed those words out through her clenched teeth with bursting tears. "Why couldn't she just...why can't she just stay where she had been and just live her fucking life?"

Tamsin huffed out a scoff. She wanted to say something snarky, but could come up with nothing. The pain of losing Bo was too overwhelming, and she had to grit her teeth to force her tears back.

They didn't say another word to each other for a long, long time. Tamsin gathered their things, put out the fire and resumed their journey.

* * *

The next day they arrived at the canyon area before nightfall. Tamsin numbly looked at all the rubbles, dead trees and animal remains.

The lifeless emptiness tore her apart. It smashed her heart violently and repeatedly, until it no longer existed. She wanted to scream, to yell, to question each and every deity she had ever heard of. She wanted to ask the world why it had to be Bo, but she knew it wouldn't matter. She knew that anything they had felt, experienced, or cherished, even her, or Bo's very existence, wouldn't mean a thing to this cruel world.

They were nothing but two grains of dust, and one of them had fallen and disappear, leaving her in the wind clinging desperately to whatever she could grasp to survive.

Survive. Survive. Survive. It was something she had kept telling herself so she could actually stay alive, but all of a sudden, she found it meaningless, pointless and stupid, because there was no light at the end of the tunnel. The light had touched her once, before it slipped through her fingers and could no longer be seen.

Tamsin took a few deep breaths, and started to set up a temporary camp. She built a fire to repel the darkness that started to shroud everything.

It was a starless, moonless night. The only light in the entire world, was coming from the burning flames.

They both sat in the trailer, staring at the fire for hours. Tears, agony and sorrow burdened their hearts, burying any hope that they had once had deep down.

"You should probably get some rest," Tamsin whispered to the other woman in a sigh, her voice so light as if she didn't want to disturb whoever that was sleeping underneath the rubbles.

"I'm good," Kenzi replied. She curled up in the trailer under the blankets, staring at the dark sky.

"So...what happened during the past 6 years?" She eventually asked. "Did we...get rid of all the zombies? Did any brilliant scientist at least figure out a vaccine or a cure yet?"

"Yeah, all of those happened, and now we are in a world without hunger or war. It's just forever peace," Tamsin grunted.

"I'm serious, blondie," Kenzi hissed as she punched Tamsin. It felt like nothing but a soft nudge to the blonde, though.

"Well," Tamsin started. "That A.Z.D shit didn't last long, because they ran out of recruits. I think at that time they realized that there was no way we could _win._ They gave up. People started to run away from the cities and into the wild, fighting for resources on the way, killing each other or being killed by zombies. A lot of people died because of fear, plague and despair. The whole system started to break down."

Kenzi nodded quietly. "I can't believe this is real, dude," she murmured in a whisper. "Like...how could any of this shit be real?"

Tamsin mumbled something that Kenzi didn't quite get. Then the blonde cleared her throat and continued, "anyway, I think there was a discussion about whether we should nuke the shit out of the flesheaters, but apparently it's not possible cuz they are everywhere. I think they even came up with plans like...having volunteers lure zombies into a place and nuke that place to kill them all, but...there are just too many of those damn fuckers."

"That's...crazy," Kenzi said. "It's...just crazy."

"Wait till I tell you hear the crazier," Tamsin said with a scoff. "4 years ago maybe? A nuclear bomb was dropped on the west coast."

"What?! Are you serious?" Kenzi exclaimed as she propped herself up on her elbows.

"Yep, I heard it on the news channel on the radio, followed by a long, stupid discussion of who dropped it. Some thought that it must be Russia or China. Others claimed that it was a mistake made by a panicking official who still had control over the system, or simply because of a system malfunction. Some didn't believe it at all, saying that it was totally fake and they were trying to make us panic."

"Did they really drop a nuclear bomb?"

"I think they did. I've seen a few survivors who used to live close to that area. They looked exactly like the survivors of Hiroshima so...I guess that shit is probably real. The west coast is definitely a no go now"

"That's crazy," Kenzi commented. "It's just...unbelievable. I mean...a nuclear bomb?"

"I heard that we fired back or something," Tamsin continued, "dumped a couple of them over that side of the pacific ocean. I don't know if that was real, though."

Kenzi was too shocked to say anything. She just quietly lolled there for a long time, before she breathed, "so what's the deal now? Are we just…."

"Now? There's this new, government without border thing setting up settlements," Tamsin shrugged. "Of course a lot of people don't give a shit about that. We just survive on our own terms."

Kenzi nodded. "Good call," she commented.

She pondered for a long time before she asked, "what exactly happened to me? How can I just...be unconscious for 6 years? That doesn't make sense."

"I don't know," Tamisn shook her head. "The doctor said that it might be some sort of dormancy or whatever, but...hey, you are still alive, with all your fingers and toes attached. Does that really matter?"

"Good point, blondie, good point," Kenzi agreed.

They went quiet for a while, both staring into the fire, until Kenzi whispered, "is she really...gone?"

Tamsin swallowed hard and closed her eyes. It took her forever to push that one word through the lump in her throat. "Yeah," she replied, feeling the last bit of hope in her heart being shattered and crumbled. She fisted her hands, letting her nails digging into her own palm. A sigh came out from her mouth, filled with despair.

Kenzi sat up and buried her face into her arms. A few broken, muffled sobs came out from her. She tried to control them, but she couldn't. Her whimpers turned into cries and wails.

Tamsin sighed again, and held the other woman's shoulder firmly. She pulled Kenzi to her chest, and closed her eyes.

Kenzi called Bo's name in vain, till her voice reduced to a gagged whisper. "Why? Why?" She asked repeatedly, but got no answer.

Eventually crying exhausted her, and she slipped back down into the trailer after falling asleep. Tamsin fisted her right hand and shoved it against her own nose and mouth.

She finally burst into tears, crying silently and breathlessly in pain.

* * *

When Kenzi woke up the next morning, Tamsin was already putting out the fire and gathering their things.

"So what am I gonna do now?" Kenzi murmured.

Tamsin shrugged. "The only thing you can do, survive," she replied. After examining the tricycle to make sure it would still run perfectly, she added, "there are government settlements, if that's where you'd want to go."

Kenzi shook her head. "I just...I want to go home," she murmured, and the word "home" wedged into her heart like a thorn. She realized that she had no home to go back to. The only person that she considered her family had been gone.

"Sure," Tamsin nodded slightly. "You mean that old house you and Bo-"

Kenzi immediately nodded. "I just...It's been almost ten years since I left there, I kinda…."

"I understand," Tamsin told her. She bit her bottom lip for a while, before she asked, "where is umm...the house of yours?"

Kenzi told her the city it was in, and Tamsin raised one eyebrow in surprise. "Wow, that's very close to Brazenwood."

"Umm...Brazenwood?"

"It's the shitty community I live," Tamsin explained simply. "Anyway, it's a 2-3 week trip. We need supplies."

"Yeah, where can we get supplies when we are in a zombie dominated world and...with nothing but a tricycle and a bag?" Kenzi tried to joke, but only made her own heart heavier.

"I know a place," Tamsin replied and hopped on the tricycle.

"What kinda place might that be?" Kenzi slid under the blankets and held the rail firmly with her right hand.

"An old camp I used to live in" was the blonde's answer before they took off.

* * *

 **A/N: sooo...some Kenzi and Tamsin bonding time. I always love those :) buuuuut, what happened to Bo and where is she now? Hmmm, I think there will be some answers in the next chapter.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11 - The Old Camp

**Chapter 11 - The Old Camp**

After travelling southwest for a couple of days, Tamsin and Kenzi had finally reached the east side of Creeksville.

They had to give up their tricycle because of a derailed freight train that was blocking the road. On foot, they slowly travelled towards a state park that was on the other side of the city.

Shocked by how empty and dilapidated the entire city had become, Kenzi followed the other woman in silence while thinking about how those peaceful lives had been shattered here when everything had started.

Several hours later, they arrived at a small town, which was the gateway of the park. Its main street, once busily entertaining tourists with all the candy stores, restaurants, photo booths and souvenir shops, now was filled with abandoned cars, old trash and rubbles of the collapsed buildings.

Kenzi let out a sigh when she saw a skeleton leg hanging on a broken window of a tour bus which had run into a lamp post. "I thought things I've seen before I joined the army were bad enough already," she murmured.

"Well Creeksville is one of the outbreak origins. It didn't take very long for people to lose hope and abandon the city, and here we are." Tamsin made a welcome gesture.

The entrance of the state park was blocked by a lot of cars, so they decided to enter from its side. After a detour, they reached the very outside of the park, where a few pieces of private lands lay.

They passed by a orchard, and it had been taken over by tall weeds. There was a leafless fruit tree standing in the middle. Neither of them knew if it was still al

Behind the orchard, there was a house which had almost been destroyed by lush vegetation, termites and rodents. Half of its roof had collapsed and buried in brown vines.

Tamsin took a few steps towards it, accidentally hitting a metal plate hanging beside the front gate. Flakes of rust fell on her shoes, and she cursed.

"Someone you know living in there or something?" Kenzi asked, pointing at the house.

"Not really," Tamsin replied. She licked her lips and quickly scanned the surroundings, before she added, "there was a family who used to live here."

"Yeah, I can tell," Kenzi murmured as she stared at a ride on toy car on the side of the front porch.

Then she noticed a skeleton in the corner of the front yard. There was a bludgeoned wound on the skull. Another skeleton was under the collapsed roof, with some sort of weapon in its right hand.

"Come on," the blonde urged her simply, starting to walk again.

Together they headed into the woods behind the house. After walking along a dirt road for a while, they arrived at a small camping area.

Kenzi quickly scanned the whole place. A few big, mature trees formed a circle, and in the middle there was a fire pit built with rocks and bricks. Three log benches surrounded the fire pit. Under one of them there was a rusty fire poker set. An old RV parked between the fire pit and an oak tree, covered in foliage.

"This is your old camp?" Kenzi murmured as she frowned at the car's flat tires, rusty rims and chipped paints. "I don't think that thing would still work."

Tamsin snorted and entered the vehicle. She impatiently signalled Kenzi to follow her after seeing that the brunette wasn't moving at all.

Kenzi hesitantly did as she was told, and frowned at the other woman who got down on one knee in the middle of the living area inside the RV. "Is everything okay?"

"Yep," Tamsin hummed and lifted a piece of the floor board. She brushed away the dirt underneath, and revealed a hatch door.

"Dude...is that…?" Kenzi mumbled as she gaped at the hatch door. "Is that what I think it is?"

Tamsin answered her with a smirk. Then, she grabbed the handle on the door and slid it to the side.

"After you," Kenzi told her after glancing at the long ladder leading its way down.

"Fine," Tamsin rolled her eyes and hopped down. "Make sure you close everything behind you. Make it look like we were never here."

After closing the hatch door above her head, darkness surrounded Kenzi. She gripped the bars of the ladder tightly as she slowly lowered one foot to find the next bar to step on. She almost slipped and fell when lights were turned on below her.

"Are you gonna stay on the ladder forever? It's that comfy, huh?" Tamsin teased.

Kenzi quickly climbed down. She found herself in a bunker. She was shocked to see the fluorescent lights above her head, two sets of simple furniture against the walls and several shelves of supplies.

"Holly molly! This is a fucking nuclear bunker, isn't it?!" She exclaimed as she searched for the buzzing sound that she was hearing. She eventually located it: a ventilation fan on the wall. "There's even a ventilation system?! Did you build this? This is just...damn, girl, if Bo was here, she'd be-"

Choking on that name, she stopped abruptly, leaving an unbearable silence in the air.

Tamsin swallowed hard and kicked her backpack under one of the lab beds. Then, she sat down on the chair beside it and rubbed her sore shoulders. Throwing her head back, she stared at the lights for a long time, before she replied, "no, I didn't build this. I have no idea who built it."

"What you just found it in the middle of nowhere?"

Tamsin let out a deep breath and straightened her body, before she went to get two bottles of water from the shelf. She threw one at Kenzi, and opened the other for herself, After downing it in gulps, she said, "it wasn't me who found it."

"Oh," Kenzi simply nodded. She checked out the lights and the fan again, before she asked, "I thought you said that the whole system had broken down completely. How could this shit still be working?"

"I don't know," Tamsin told her honestly. She put the cap on the bottle and put the empty bottle away. "My guess is that this place has its own power supply system. Maybe solar? I don't think I've seen any panels nearby though...whoever designed this must have planned it well."

Throwing her hand lazily at the door in the corner of the bunker, she said, "there's the bathroom. It used to have clean water, shower and everything, but it stopped working several months ago. Now the water just stinks. The septic system must have broken down."

Kenzi nodded. "So...who found this place?" She murmured. "Were you here with your family or something?"

Tamsin scoffed. "No," she said. After a long pause, she added, "I was with someone who...I guess you could call her...a friend."

She tasted a bitterness on her tongue, and she knew it was the taste of her old memories. They took her back to the day when she had found out that her parents had made the plan to abandon her so they could join the government settlement.

* * *

Tamsin thought if she'd ever be banished to hell and thrown into the pit of fire, it would feel like this, her skin being torn off and her flesh being scorched, her heart being pulled out and her body being torn apart.

She opened her mouth and forced the air into her lungs while gripping tightly to her backpack. She tried to call for help, but she couldn't get a word out from her throat. No matter what she would say, they were stuck in the back of her throat like busted bubbles. She tried and tried, but couldn't get them out.

She moaned in pain, when a hand was placed on her forehead. Spooked, she jolted and squeezed her hands tightly around the straps of her backpack, causing the cans in it to clatter.

"You are burning up," a woman's voice told her. A calm voice. "It's good."

Tamsin had finally managed to pry her eyes open, but she could see nothing but a blurry haze. She could barely focus.

There was a female figure in front of her, or maybe there wasn't at all. She couldn't even tell if she was dreaming. Then, there was some sort of light source above her, and she was surprised that it was so bright and it wasn't flickering at all.

 _Am I in a hospital?_ She asked herself, and immediately laughed at that thought. The world had ended already. Why would she be in a hospital?

She passed out again soon, but came back not long after that. Her fever would come and go, and she knew that someone was there checking her temperature, feeding her water and taking care of her.

 _Mom? Is that you?_ She wondered, wanting to say that out loud but couldn't. At some point she recalled the conversation she had heard between her parents and remembered that they had decided to go to the government settlement without her.

She panted, before someone raised her head to give her some water. The cold fluid flushed down her throat, giving her enough strength to mutter "mom...dad..." before passing out again.

She woke up in nightmares after what seemed to have been forever, soaked in sweat, jerking back and forth, until someone held her arms firmly and forced her to lay back down.

"Burning is good," the female voice came to her again, distant yet firm. "If you were to turn, you wouldn't be having a fever."

Something cool was placed on her forehead. Maybe a folded towel that had been soaked in cold water? Tamsin moved her head from left to right and mumbled something, before she slipped into her nightmares again.

She didn't know how long she had slept, but when she woke up, she felt like she had been reborn. She was weak, worn out, yet alive, with a heart that was still beating.

She struggled to sit up, and found herself in a small room with no windows. She was in a slab bed, and there was a second one against the wall across the room. A desk was in between, with two chairs behind it.

A buzz spooked her. She gasped and spun around, only to realize that it was coming from the radio on the shelf on the other side of the room.

She gaped at the cases of bottled water, medicine and cans of food. _Is this heaven?_ She thought as she moved one of her legs off the bed.

The door behind her suddenly opened, and she immediately grabbed a jar of jam as her weapon.

She saw a woman in her early 40s walking out from a door which seemed to lead to a small bathroom. The woman's brown hair had been braided together and tied into a bun behind her head. There were a scar on her chin, and another one across the bridge of her nose. She was wearing a leather jacket which had some biker gang icon embroidered on the side of her left sleeve. Her jeans were old, a bit tattered, and her boots were muddy. A falchion was hanging on the the left side of her waist, sheathed. She was also carrying a revolver in the holster underneath her jacket.

"You are…?" Tamsin asked hesitantly. She didn't recognize her face, but she did recognize that voice. It was the voice that soothed her during her fever.

"You can just call me Acacia," the woman told her simply as she sat down on an empty chair. She got out a big bag under the other bed, and started to sort the things in the bag.

"I'm...my name's Tamsin," Tamsin introduced herself. She looked around again, before she asked, "umm...where am I?"

"In the woods," Acacia answered simply, opening a can of fruit with a can opener on her multitool. After seeing the confused look on the young blonde's face, she explained, "I was hunting in the woods. You stumbled in and scared away my deer. I almost shot you in the head."

"Did I…?" Tamsin slurred, frowning. She remembered fighting that zombie in the store. After having found out that she was bitten, she ran back home frightened, only to find out that her parents were ready to leave without her. She remembered running into the woods behind the community her family had lived. She remembered herself crying while running before passing out.

"Woulda shot you there, if you hadn't been crying like a baby and burning like a hot coal," Acacia said as she handed Tamsin the opened can and a clean spoon.

"Thanks," Tamsin murmured. She scooped some cubed peach out and carefully ate them, making sure that she wasn't dripping any syrup into the bed sheets.

After she had finished eating, Acacia came over to check her bite wound, which had now turned into a weird purple color.

"It looks all good," the elder woman commented.

"Is this...a scar?" Tamsin asked as she looked at the purple mark closely.

"It's called a Fuchsia Mark," Acacia told her. "Those who got bitten but wouldn't turn will have that."

"Oh," Tamsin nodded, feeling so relieved that she almost fell off the bed. "I thought-I didn't know that you could survive from a...zombie bite."

"Not many people could. Just consider yourself lucky, kid," Acacia said. She glanced at the empty can in Tamsin's hand, before she continued, "alrighty, you wanna go back to where you came from now, or you wanna rest for a little longer?"

Tamsin went quiet. She picked up her backpack, and squeezed her hands around the straps. "I...I have nowhere to go back to," she said. Even though she tried to make her voice as nonchalant and calm as she could, she knew that slight shiver in her voice had already betrayed her.

"No family?"

"Not anymore," Tamsin replied quickly as she picked up a few things that had fallen out from her bag.

"Hmm," Acacia hummed as she eyed the young girl. "Lost them to the walkers?"

Tamsin shook her head and bit her bottom lip.

"How old are you?" Acacia narrowed her eyes at her.

"I'll be 17 this November," Tamsin said, trying to zip up her bag but it seemed that the zipper had been ripped and now it wouldn't close.

"I see. They went somewhere safe and left you behind, huh?" The elder woman pointed out, and Tamsin turned away looking at the floor.

Acacia huffed. "Ever killed walkers before?"

"Tons," Tamsin answered, before she embarrassingly corrected herself under the other woman's piercing look. "...a couple."

Acacia nodded briefly. "Are you good at anything?"

Tamsin paused at that question. "I...I'm really good at math," she blurted.

Acacia rolled her eyes. "I meant, are you good at things like hunting?"

After a long, embarrassing silence, Tamsin replied honestly, "I went hunting with my dad a couple of times and-well I didn't really get anything but I know the basics. I used to go fishing with my grandfather and-"

"-good at nothing, I get it," Acacia interrupted her as she threw her left hand into the air lazily. She stared at Tamsin for a while, before she shook her head and snorted, "well...kids these days…." After a second or two, she looked at the young girl again and asked, "alright, kid, do you want to stay here with me?"

Tamsin opened her mouth, not sure if she should believe such a generous invitation from a total stranger, but then she remembered that she had no home to return to and that it was Acacia who had saved her life. "Yeah, sure," she replied, nodding. "If...if you don't mind me staying here, Ma'am."

"Okay," Acacia nodded. "Now, let's get outta there and get that damn deer first. Hurry."

* * *

Lauren had sunk too deep into her own thoughts to notice the impatient knock on the door to her office until it finally turned into a loud banging sound.

She quickly closed the file fold in her hands and put it into the bottom drawer, before she called, "come in."

A nurse opened the door and stuck her head in. "Dr. Lewis, could you come to the patient room one for a second?"

"Sure. What is it, Lisa? Is Mr. Thornton demanding morphine again?" Lauren asked as she stood up and put on her lab coat.

"No, we transferred him to room two, so Daniel could watch him," Lisa said in a quiet chuckle. "It's this woman the hunting squad found beside one of the creeks in the woods," she explained as she lead the way.

"Oh. Is she okay? Any injuries? Any bite wounds? Any signs of turning?"

"No I don't think she's gonna turn. I didn't find any bite wounds either," Lisa replied. "She's just...unconscious right now."

"Unconscious?" Lauren repeated when she noticed the hesitation in the other woman's voice.

"She's ummm..." Lisa mumbled as she stopped outside the door to patient room one. She pointed at the only patient in the room and said, "that's her."

Lauren gave her a nod before she walked to the patient's bedside. "Is she from our settlement?" She asked while checking examining the unconscious woman that she didn't recognize.

"I don't think so. Nobody seems to know her," Lisa said. "I mean, someone that pretty, I'm sure if anyone has ever seen her, they'd remember her."

"Good point," Lauren commented as she glanced at the unknown woman's face. Although covered in mud, water and dirt, she still looked stunning. "Is there anything abnormal that I should know about?"

"Ummm...the hunter who found her. When she sent her in, she said that...at first she thought this woman was dead because she had no pulse."

"No pulse? I'm pretty sure there's a heart beating in there," Lauren commented as she listened to the unknown woman's heartbeat. "Unless-" she suddenly stopped as something occurred to her.

"Unless what?" The nurse asked, oblivious.

"Nothing, nothing really," Lauren told the nurse with a smile on her face.

The nurse was about to say something, but someone on the hallway interrupted her. After murmuring something to that person, she told Lauren, "Dr. Lewis, I gotta go check Ms. Smith for a bit. Just call me if you need anything, okay? "

"Sure," Lauren nodded. After the nurse left, she turned back to the unknown woman, her eyebrows furrowed.

Sliding her fingers behind the woman's left ear, she slowly moved them down under her chin. There she felt her pulse on the tip of her fingers, strong, maybe a little too slow for a doctor's like, but strong.

She pulled back and examined the woman's face. It was pale, almost too pale for a living person, but a hint of pink underneath her cheeks reminded Lauren that this woman was definitely alive.

Lauren stared at that pale face as it reminded her of someone else. Someone who had been as pale That woman in military uniform, her was Kenzi. When she had been sent in, she had had no pulse, but it slowly came back.

Why would something like that happen? How was it even possible? These two questions remained in her mind, haunting her, and she didn't even know if she'd ever have the chance to figure it all out, since Tamsin and Kenzi just disappeared one night.

It was then she recalled the conversation she and Tamsin had in the ICU when Tamsin had told her that there had been a third person with them during the earthquake.

"A brunette, slender body, pretty, long hair…" Lauren murmured the description that Tamsin had given her that day while looking at the unknown woman. She was shocked that the woman lying unconsciously in the patient bed right in front of her would fit that description perfectly.

 _Huh_. Lauren thought as she frowned at the unconscious woman. _What happened to you?_

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the long wait. The end of the semesters are always crazy. A slow chapter, I know, and Bo and Tamsin are still apart...it'll take a while for them to see each other again :)**


	12. Chapter 12 - Dream

**Chapter 12 - Dream**

Sitting against a tall oak tree, Tamsin had her machete in its sheath and placed on her thighs. Her right hand loosely held the hilt, and with her left she unconsciously pulled the dry grass beside her.

The entire world seemed to have fallen asleep. Even the crackles from the fire she had started became so incredibly soft and quiet.

She pushed some firewood into the fire pit, and stared at the flames. She told herself to stay vigilant and focused, but the burning flames wouldn't allow her. It was like they weren't just emitting heat or light, but also some sort of hypnotizing power. The longer she stared at it, the heavier her eyelids became.

Slowly, she closed her eyes. Her hand slipped away from her weapon and her head sank to one side. Right before her whole body lost balance, she jolted awake at a crisp sound. She gasped and grabbed her machete, her eyes shot open.

She looked for the source of the sound, but it seemed to have disappeared. Everything around her seemed so peaceful, so quiet.

The silence of the night eventually consumed her again. She dozed off, but was again awakened by something.

Was it a loud crackle from the fire? Was it a bird taking off? Was it a leaf falling? Or was it a crunch from a twig that had been crushed by _someone's_ foot?

Tamsin scanned the surroundings quickly while slowly withdrawing her legs. She folded them under butt, quietly raised herself on her knees before standing up carefully.

Tucking herself behind the bushes right in front of the trailer home, she inhaled the air.

It was cool and dry. A blend of mud, rotten foliage, pine trees and fire. A smell of the forest in the late Fall, with no signs of rotten flesh of zombies.

Tamsin tucked her left hand into her jacket and pulled out an old revolver. It was Acacia's backup weapon stored in the bunker. She equipped it since she had lost hers to the earthquake.

She made sure that it was loaded. Slowly she let out a deep breath.

She waited for that sound to either come again or go away. The dead silence almost made her believe that she had been too paranoid, until she heard a soft crack coming from the woods.

This time, she was certain that it was dry leaves being crushed and crumbled because someone was treading towards the camp. She raised her revolver and aimed at where the sound was coming from.

She closed her eyes and focused on that sound, feeling a little relieved that she only heard one person's footstep.

Soon, someone walked into the camp. Someone in a long, baggy dress that looked it was made from hide. Someone who had been walking on barefoot.

When she turned her face to Tamsin, the blonde was beyond shocked to recognize her as Bo.

Feeling her heart suddenly losing control, Tamsin squeezed the grip of her gun. She stumbled out from behind the bushes, staring at the brunette's face the entire time.

It was indeed Bo, the same person who had been haunting her dreams ever since the earthquake. Those warm, brown eyes were now staring right back at her. With the reflection of the moon in them, they looked so deep and bright. Those soft hair locks that were hugging her beautiful cheeks fluttered in the night wind. Those lips, they curled into a subtle smile.

All of a sudden, everything seemed to have seized to exist. And Tamsin's crazy, loud heartbeat had reduced into a soft buzz in her ears, clouding everything.

"Bo…?" She called in a shaking whisper as she reached for the brunette eagerly. "Is that...really you?" She asked, frowning at Bo's weird looking dress.

It was then she realized that something might be off. It must be. The heavy pulse in her blood told her so. The voice in the very back of her exploded mind told her so. The foul smell that had suddenly triggered the sensors in her nose told her so. Her hunch told her so.

Or, did she even have to use her hunch? Was there anything that was _not_ weird? Bo appearing in front of her all of a sudden? The fact that she was dressed in something that belonged to a museum? The fact that she had been travelling through the woods at night without wearing any shoes but somehow still managed to keep her feet absolutely clean?

"You are not Bo," Tamsin hissed as she raised her gun at the other woman. "You-she died."

She had never said that out loud, like if she kept it as a secret, she'd see Bo again someday. It was something that she refused to believe even though she knew she was being dumb. And now, when she had finally admitted it, agony exploded in her chest.

Swallowing her bitterness back, she she pressed her index finger against the trigger. "Who are you?" She growled at the other woman.

The brunette seemed to have been in a trance, though. She didn't answer Tamsin's question. Instead, she just stood there and looked into the blonde's eyes for a second or two. The look in those brown eyes made Tamsin feel both in peace and alarmed.

The night wind came, sounding like a low, deep wail. All the leaves fluttered in it with soft whimpers. Bo suddenly turned away, as if the wind was some sort of signal, an order, a sign.

She raised her right arm and pointed at the night sky. The full moon that had been there was gone. Something brighter was there. Something that was falling down.

Too shocked by what she was seeing, Tamsin took quite a while to figure out that it was possibly a meteor and it was about to hit the earth.

It came fast, its flames consuming everything. The night sky was lit as if it was daytime, and there was nowhere for them to run.

Tamsin took the brunette into her arms and threw both of them to the side. She knew nothing she did right now would matter, but what else could she do?

She hit the ground, but it felt like she was being thrown into a soft bed. She didn't feel the impact, nor did she feel any pain. The bright light wiped everything afterwards.

With a loud gasp, Tamsin opened her eyes. She waved her arms back and forth, searching for Bo. It took her a long time to realize that she was in fact lying in her slab bed down in the bunker.

She lolled as she realized that it was just a dream. It felt so real, though. She thought she actually had Bo in her arms for a few seconds. She thought she had inhaled her scent. Her heat, it was still dancing on her fingertips.

Letting out a deep sigh, she closed her eyes in frustration. She lay there and listened to the ventilation fan running for a long time, before she had finally given up on going back to sleep and decided to get herself some water.

When she sat up, she noticed that Kenzi was sitting in the other bed. The petite woman was staring at the ceiling.

Tamsin reached for the machete she had placed under her pillow, before she turned on the light. "You alright?" She asked Kenzi.

The petite woman immediately shielded her own eyes from the light. She cleared her throat and muttered, "yeah, yeah I'm fine, just...I think I just…."

She trailed off as she looked around, with a surprised look on her face, as if it was hard for her to believe that she was in the bunker.

"I guess I had a dream," she murmured, frowning. "I thought-Bo was in it."

"Really?" Tamsin asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Mhm," Kenzi hummed. She took a deep breath as she looked at the floor. "Sorry. I guess I just...miss her."

Tamsin swallowed hard, feeling the pain seeping through the scar on her heart now. _I miss her too_. She thought, fisting her hands so hard that she had her fingernails digging into her own palm.

"Do you think maybe...she could still be alive?" Kenzi asked. "Like...I mean, you hear that shit all the time. Woman got pulled out under rubbles days after the hurricane or whatever. I think once I even heard some pig got buried for a month and was still alive before it was rescued."

Tamsin huffed out a soft snort and shook her head. "Just go back to sleep, okay?" She told the other woman as she turned off the light. "We got a long way to go tomorrow."

"Okay," Kenzi replied as she lay back into her bed in the darkness. "What's our plan again?" She murmured, her voice weak as if she had been drained by whatever she had seen in her dream.

"Creeksville for scavenger hunting. That old house you and...Bo shared. Then, Brazenwood," Tamsin said.

She got no reply from Kenzi, though. The other woman seemed to have fallen asleep already.

Tamsin let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes again as she waited for the dawn.

* * *

Lauren checked the heartbeat of the unknown female patient first. Then she removed the earpiece from her ears and let the stethoscope hang on her neck. "How's she doing today, Lisa?" She asked the nurse while writing on her clipboard with her head lowered.

"The same as-" the nurse stuttered. "Oh my God, doctor Lewis!" She suddenly exclaimed and slapped Lauren hard on her arm. "She's awake! She's awake! Our sleeping beauty is awake!"

Lauren raised to look at the nurse with a frown. Then she turned to the patient. When she saw that the patient's eyes were wide open, she was so shocked that she dropped her clipboard. _How is this possible?_ She asked herself. _I have just examined her, and there were no signs of her waking up any time soon!_

She cleared her throat and quickly checked the woman's vitals. After seeing nothing unusual, she looked at the woman, still frowning. "Can you...hear me?" She asked hesitantly.

The woman looked back at her, but was too confused, or too absent minded maybe, to answer her question at first. After staring at Lauren's face for a while, a mumble bubbled through her lips, something neither Lauren nor Lisa could understand.

The woman cleared her throat and tried again, but her voice was too hoarse. She eventually gave Lauren a nod.

"Don't worry. You are in a hospital. Everything's gonna be fine," Lauren told her. "Lisa here-" she pointed at the nurse, "-is going to collect some blood samples from you, okay?"

The woman nodded again. She swallowed for a few times, and then cleared her throat again. "I'm...in a hospital?" She asked as she looked at everything in the room.

"Yes, you are in a hospital. You are in good hands," Lisa replied softly as she drew her blood. "This is a government settlement. You are safe here."

"A government settlement?" The patient frowned. She seemed to have a hard time believing so until she saw the borderless government logo on her blankets. "How-how did I get here?"

"Our hunting squad found you unconscious by the creek not far away from here. They brought you back," Lisa explained as she put one full vial away and switched to an empty one.

"Someone found me by a creek?" The patient murmured, frowning hard. "I don't-I don't remember any creek. I mean, I thought I was in a cave under the canyon when...everything just started to shake and fall-"

"It was an earthquake, and you survived. Don't worry, okay? We'll take good care of ya," Lisa singsonged as she tapped the patient's hand gently. She pulled the needle out and put a bandage on the woman's arm.

Then, she put the sticker labels on each vial. When she was about to write down the patient's name on the labels, she paused. "Can I have your name, sweetheart?"

The woman nodded. "It's Bo," she said softly.

Both her and Lisa was beyond surprised when they heard Lauren mumble the same time at the same time.

"Do I...know you?" Bo frowned at the doctor as she read her badge. "Dr...Lewis?"

"No," Lauren shook her head with a relieved smile. "That was just a...lucky guess."

Lisa shrugged it off with a chuckle. Before she wrote Bo's name on the labels, Lauren stopped her.

"Let's just be consistent and continue label her samples as Patient Unknown 203, okay?" The doctor said. "That way we won't...we'll know it's her."

"Sure," Lisa nodded as she followed Lauren's order. Before she left the room with the blood samples, she told Bo, "I'll check back on you later, okay, _Patient Unknown 203_?"

Bo chuckled and thanked her. After the nurse closed the door behind her, Bo turned to Lauren and asked, "ummm...there were supposed to-I mean, I was with someone when the earthquake happened. Are they...here?"

Before Lauren answered her question, Bo let out a light laugh and explained, "one of them is a tall blonde. Her name is Tamsin. The other one is petite, raven hair. Her name is-"

"-Kenzi."

"That's why you know my name. They are here! Are they here?" Bo struggled to sit up and looked around. All she saw, though, were empty patient beds in the room.

"They were here," Lauren said.

" _Were_?" Bo repeated, unable to hold the weight that had suddenly been dropped on her heart now.

"Several weeks ago, they were rescued from the rubbles. They both recovered well. Then, they left."

"They left? Why? And you said they both recovered well? So they were okay? They were okay, right?"

"They were both perfectly healthy when they left. Well, your friend Kenzi was a bit weak, but...everything was fine," Lauren explained.

"Why did they leave? Where did they go?"

Lauren shrugged and shook her head. "I have no idea. They didn't tell anyone. One night, they were just gone."

Bo nodded, beyond relieved that both Tamsin and Kenzi were fine but a little disappointed that she had missed them. Then, she frowned as something occurred to her. "You said that they were rescued several weeks ago...what-I mean, the earthquake happened several weeks ago?"

"It was almost two months ago," Lauren replied as she looked at Bo closely.

"And I was-when did your hunting squad find me again?" Bo asked as she realized that she had lost two months of time without even knowing.

"A couple of days ago," Lauren told her.

"And where was I before they found me?"

"I have no idea," Lauren said. "You don't remember anything?"

Bo shook her head. "Am I okay? I don't have an amputated leg or anything, do I?" She joked as she quickly lifted the blanket and took a peek.

"No, you are fine. Everything's fine. In fact, you look too healthy for someone who has been..." Lauren trailed off. She hesitantly pulled a chair over and sat down beside Bo's bed. "Your friend, Tamsin, told me that you two were looking for Kenzi, and that you found her under a canyon?"

"Yeah," Bo nodded. "We found her down there and carried her out. I left my bag in the cave so I went down to grab it. That was when the earthquake happened. Whoa, can't believe I'm still alive…."

"You were really lucky," Lauren agreed.

"How did I even survive? I mean, I thought for sure I'd die when the cave collapsed. And it's been nearly two months?" Bo murmured.

"What do you remember?"

The brunette frowned. "Just...everything shook and fell, and I think I fell into that creek in the cave or something...there was definitely water. I was definitely in the water before I passed out."

Lauren nodded. "Well..." she said. "They found you by the creek. It seemed that the water had washed you to the bank...that canyon area has a lot of underground rivers so my best guess would be... somehow a river brought you all the way out."

Bo nodded. Then she shrugged. "Oh well, as long as I'm alive, it doesn't matter."

"The earthquake aside," Lauren said hesitantly. "Do you remember anything else down in the canyon? Like...anything unusual?"

Bo shook her head. "The only unusual thing would be Kenzi. Her heartbeat was really slow. I thought she was dead, you know."

"Mhm," Lauren nodded as she stared at Bo, "but other than that, you don't remember anything abnormal?"

"No, not really. Why?"

"When the hunting squad found you, they thought you were dead too. Your heart rate was extremely low," Lauren explained. "You barely had a pulse and you weren't even breathing."

"Really?" Bo frowned, "You mean...I was like Kenzi when they found me?"

"Yeah," the doctor nodded. "Have you experienced similar things before?"

"No," Bo shook her head. "Not that I know of."

"Your friend, Kenzi. Has she experienced anything like that before?"

"No, I don't think so. If she had, she'd have told me. Why? Is there something wrong with us?"

"No," Lauren quickly denied. Then she pursed her lips and corrected herself, "well, I don't think there is, but I'd like to run some tests to make sure. It could be some sort of dormancy. A certain environmental trigger might be the cause, or..."

After pondering with mumbles for a while, she asked Bo, "you really don't remember anything else?"

Bo bit her bottom lip. "I remember...feeling cold, like...really, really cold. And I remember this-this bright light, like an explosion maybe?" She murmured, and quickly gave the other woman an embarrassed smile. "It's probably a dream."

Lauren nodded. "Just let me know if you remember anything, okay?"

Bo nodded back with a smile on her face.

"Why don't you get some rest?" Lauren suggested as she stood up. "I'm gonna go run those tests now. If you need anything, just tell Lisa, okay?"

"Sure," Bo murmured. She tucked herself under the blankets after Lauren left.

 _Whoa._ She thought. _Did I really just survived an earthquake? That's rad. And the dormancy shit? Is that even real?_

The whole thing about the dormancy quickly left her her mind, since it wasn't something nearly important as Tamsin and Kenzi.

She couldn't be more relieved to hear that both of them were still alive and well. It was such a disappointment, though, to have missed them.

Bo wondered why they had left, and where they had gone. She knew if it had been Kenzi alone, she'd have gone back to that old house they had lived for sure. It had always been their rally point. Even if Kenzi wouldn't stay there for long, she'd leave her a message there at least.

But, would Tamsin go there with her too? Or would she wander along on her own?

Bo's heart fluttered as she thought about the blonde. She wondered if she'd ever see her again, and that thought made her heart heavy.

She wondered where Tamsin might be, if she wasn't with Kenzi. All she remembered was that Tamsin had come to Creeksville scavenging for records and documents of zombie outbreak. She also remembered that the blonde mentioned once that she was living in Brazenwood, a place that was considered hell by most settlement residents.

Would she return to Brazenwood at some point? Could she find her there?

Bo hadn't realized how badly she wanted to find Tamsin again until now. The thought of finding her seemed almost natural to her, as if there wasn't a second choice, as if it was the _only_ possible way of living her life.

She had to find her. She just had to. She couldn't bear the thought of not being able to see her again. She wanted to see her again, to hold her again, to listen to her strong heartbeat and her vulnerable whispers, to be with her.

It all seemed like yesterday, when they smiled at each other, held each other's hand and kissed each other. Her heart still pounded hard at the heat of Tamsin's soft lips. She had to find her.

 _Rest, recover, old house, Brazenwood_. Bo told herself as she slowly slipped into her dreams.

* * *

Lauren examined the blood sample she had taken from Bo under her microscope. She pondered at it for a long time, before she went to grab a file folder from the cabinet.

She pulled out a sheet of printouts, and compared it with what she was seeing under the microscope. She hesitated for a while, before she moved her chair towards the small fridge beside her desk.

She was about to open it, when she heard high heels click-clacking down along the hallway towards her office.

She barely got enough time to tuck the printout back into the folder before Evony opened the door to her office and invited herself in.

Lauren gave her a smile and a nod as she stood up and pulled off her gloves.

"Oh, please, Lauren," Evony said with a soft voice. "You don't have to pause those brilliant things you do just for me."

"Well, then maybe you should do less surprise visit," Lauren said. It was meant to be a tease, but she knew she had made it too dry.

"This is not a surprise visit," Evony waved her hand. "I am in the building so I decided to drop by and check out what you are up to..." she drawled as she opened the file folder on the desk without asking for permission.

Lauren didn't make any comment this time. She just quietly tossed her gloves into a red bucket labeled as "biohazard".

Evony went through a few pages in the folder before she lost interest in all the medical terms and codes. She decided to take a peek through the microscope instead. "What's this?"

"A sample from the-" Lauren replied as she pointed at the morgue beside her office. There were a few headless zombies on the dissecting table.

"Oh," Evony raised her eyebrows as she took a glance at the body. Then she turned back to look at the sample vials stored in the fridge. "Patient Unknown 158, 171, 202 and 203?" She read the label, emphasizing the word "patient". "Please."

"They were once humans, Evony," Lauren told her. "And I think they should be considered as patients, since I'm looking for a cure for them. A cure that could turn them back to humans."

"Fine," Evony drawled as she closed the fridge. "Since we are at it, what's the status on finding a cure, doctor?"

"Well, I'm still trying to figure out the cause," Lauren told her. "I've ruled out bacterias and fungi. It's most likely something caused by a virus. Something that-"

"Doctor, stop," Evony cut Lauren off by waving her hand at her lazily. "I am not here for a lecture."

Lauren huffed out a light laugh, as if she was saying "of course".

The governor huffed out a soft yet cold scoff as she entered the morgue. After looking at all the zombie bodies in there, she gave Lauren an exaggerated pout.

Lauren turned away, starting to organize her desk even though everything was already in place. Having noticed Evony's stabbing stare, she cleared her throat and said, "it's not something that I can control. You will have to be patient."

"Oh relax, Lauren. I'm not mad at you or anything. I was just...a little disappointed. That's all," Evony said softly, though her voice sounded like a hiss from a snake. "I will be patient. Just don't forget about our _agreement_ , okay?"

Lauren shook her head and sighed. "How could I forget?" She said bitterly.

Evony scanned the room for the last time, before she headed to the door. "Alright, you are busy. I'm gonna leave you alone. It's just...it would be nice if you'd have something for me next time. That way, you, me and our little Princess Aurora will all be very happy."

With that, she left. The sound of the door closing behind her seemed to have drained every bit of energy from Lauren. The doctor lolled in her chair and let out a deep, heavy sigh.


	13. Chapter 13 - Old House

**Chapter 14 - Old House**

Tamsin slammed her foot into a zombie's stomach to shove it away from her. As the zombie stumbled to the side, she slashed her machete at its neck. She chopped off its head; the zombie twitched and fell.

A second zombie lunged at her from her left. It reached for her arm with its filthy, half rotten hands.

Tamsin dodged to the side swiftly. With her left hand she pulled out her back up weapon, a small dagger, and gave the zombie a simple stab. Her blade went into the walker's throat and came out from the back of its head.

She kicked the zombie away, letting its body trip the third zombie that was coming at her. She chopped that one's head off with a single blow.

The head fell and rolled off the ground, into the river that was beside them. The headless body collapsed in front of her. Right before it had stopped moving, it struggled to grab her ankle.

Tamsin crushed the festered flesh with one of her heels, before she kicked the body away. She quickly caught her breath, before she turned to look at Kenzi who was fighting zombies behind her.

The petite woman was swinging a katana she had taken from the old camp where Tamsin and Acacia used to live. She decapitated the zombies one after another, until the last zombie surprised her by jumping out from behind a tree.

Having no time to prepare her swing, she raised her blade and stabbed it through the zombie's nose in a quick, hard blow.

She pinned the walker into an oak tree. The zombie let out a few vague growls while reaching its hands out for her. Kenzi cursed and pushed the blade forward further to penetrate its brain completely.

The zombie stopped moving eventually, and Kenzi panted while trying to pull her weapon out from the tree. However, she seemed to have pushed it too deep inside the trunk, and no matter how hard she pulled, it just wouldn't come out.

"Are you gonna offer some help, or are you gonna stand there just like that, Tam-Tam?" She grunted as she gripped the hilt tightly and battled with it.

"Don't call me that," Tamsin replied as she helped Kenzi to get her blade out.

As the blade moved out from the zombie's head, a spray of dark, thick fluid came out with it too. It splattered all over Kenzi's face, and the petite woman fell back while cursing. She raised her empty hand in reflex, wanting to wipe it off, but then she paused there since it would be too gross to have her sleeve and her hand covered in that.

She let go of her blade and stumbled to the river in Tamsin's chuckles. While spraying clean, cold water into her face, she announced breathlessly. "That was the third herd we've encountered today."

"Yep..." Tamsin murmured while looking around for more zombie. After seeing none, she wiped her blade clean on one of the dead zombie's clothes and sheathed it. Then, she started to count the bodies.

24\. There were 24 dead zombies around them. And this was the third batch they had killed today. In the early morning, before they had entered this patch of woods, they had killed 13 zombies who attacked them. And before that, another 18 came at them while they were having some food.

Tamsin sat down against a tree and threw her head back. She took a deep breath while trying to relax her sore, cramping muscles.

When was the last time she had killed so many zombies in one day? She couldn't remember. She might have had such experience during the outbreak time, once or twice, but for a very long time, all she had been dealing with were a few strays here and there, and small groups at most.

Kenzi had finally finished cleaning her face. She sat down on the dry grass, before she lay down on her back. Sprawling there, she asked, "are they after us or something?"

Tamsin shook her head. "They aren't smart enough to do that," she said. "Maybe they are migrating and we happened to be right in their way…."

"Lucky us," Kenzi mumbled and dug her fingers into her matted hair. She tried to scratch her scalp because it was itching, but that single scratch made her feel that her entire body was itching.

Why wouldn't it? Her skin was practically coated in dried blood, dirt and zombie fluids.

She grimaced. "I think I'm gonna grab a quick bath, if you don't mind."

Tamsin shrugged. "I can wait for ten minutes."

Kenzi rolled over on the ground like a worn out dog. Then, she got up on her knees and started to take off her clothes. Tamsin casually turned away and started to organize her backpack.

"Hey, can I borrow your soap?" Kenzi asked.

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Am I allowed to say no?" She grumbled, taking out a small soap that was wrapped in plastic. She tossed it at Kenzi. "Don't apply it on yourself too generously, and make sure you dry it before you wrap it back."

"Thanks," Kenzi singsonged as she got into the water. She made sure that she was in an area where the water was shallow and calm, before she took off her underwear.

She sprayed water on herself while biting back her shivers. She ran the soap all over her body, and paused while looking at it. "It smells funny," she commented after sniffing it. "Why does it smell like burnt matches?"

"It's the sulfur," Tamsin explained. "It's good for killing bacteria or parasites, since you know, we don't bathe too often and we sleep in zombie crap everyday. I would have added some vanilla extract or whatever, had I had some."

Kenzi nodded while continuing to clean herself. She let out a series of short breath to stop herself from screaming when she dipped her head into the water to wash her hair. She clenched her teeth in shivers as she washed the bubbles away. "I can't believe that we are making soaps from scratch now," she murmured.

"Well, congratulations. It's the zombie apocalypse. We make all shit from scratch," Tamsin replied. "Hurry up, we are way behind our schedule."

"Alright, alright," Kenzi mumbled as she squeezed water out from her hair. She dried herself using a hand towel, before she quickly put on some clothes that were relatively clean. She balled the dirty ones and stuffed them into a separate pocket in her backpack. Zipping everything up, she said, "let's go go go."

Tamsin nodded. She grabbed her bag and got up. When they were about to take off, though, a cold breeze carried over a putrid smell that was thick enough to upset both of their stomachs.

"Shit," Tamsin threw her backpack on and pulled out her machete. She grabbed Kenzi's arm with her empty hand and urged. "We need to go."

Kenzi quickly grabbed her things and followed Tamsin. They didn't make it far, before they saw a huge group of zombies marching towards them through the woods.

Those hideous creatures limped and staggered, forcing their way through the trees and the bushes. When the ones that were in the front smelled Tamsin and Kenzi, they inhaled excitedly and started to trot.

"Holy fuck..." Tamsin murmured as she took a step back. The last time she had seen this many zombies, was during the outbreak when almost everyone had suddenly turned into flesheaters in streets. She swallowed hard and pulled Kenzi's arm. "Run!"

"Yeah, I was gonna say that too!" Kenzi replied before she turned around and ran for her life.

They didn't make it very far, before a second herd appeared in front of them. The monsters growled at them in excitement and came at them immediately.

Tamsin and Kenzi took a sharp turn and ran towards the river. They waded across in loud splashes, but when they had arrived at the other side of it, they saw nothing but more zombies plodding out from behind the trees.

Those who were chasing Tamsin and Kenzi were closing in, and those in front of the two women were thrilled to have discovered the two fresh, alive prey trapped in the middle of the huge herd. They all stuck their arms out at them and growled.

Slashing her blade at the closest zombie's arm, Tamsin chopped it off clean right before it had touched her. She swung her backpack at another one and forced it back.

The armless zombie fell to the side, knocking another zombie down, causing a temporary stir among the herd.

"The tree," Tamsin commanded briefly before she sprinted towards the closest pine tree. She and Kenzi quickly killed several zombies that were around it, and climbed up.

They did not stop until they had arrived on a thick branch that was at least twelve feet above the ground.

Kenzi panted and pressed her hand against her lower right abdomen that was cramping. "Where did all these assholes come from?" She exclaimed while watching hundreds of zombies gathering under the tree.

"I have no fucking idea," Tamsin replied while looking around trying to figure out a way to escape.

The woods was filled with zombies now. There was no way for them to make their way out by killing all of them for sure. They'd be torn into a million pieces long before they could get out.

Kenzi raised her katana when she saw some walkers digging their fingers into the tree and howled at them. Those zombies languishly moved their feet against the tree trunk, like they were trying to climb up but had forgotten how.

"Do you think they know how to make zombie pyramids?" She asked, genuinely worried.

Tamsin shook her head. Hadn't they been surrounded by so many zombies, she would have laughed at Kenzi's thought. She scanned the entire place and could only see two things. Zombies, and trees.

 _Trees_. She thought as she looked at all the trees and their branches. There was a thick branch of another tree right above them that she could easily reach. And if she would move along….

Tamsin looked at that branch, and some other branches that were further away from them. "I guess we could..." she said to Kenzi in a low voice as she drew a route with her index finger along all the branches that seemed to have formed a path in the air.

"Oh no, no no no," Kenzi shook her head as she gripped her weapon tightly. "That shit only works in movies and games, woman. It ain't gonna work in real life."

"Well, this shit-" Tamsin pointed at the zombie army below them, "-only existed in movies and games too, and now this is real life."

"I-I'm terrible at walking on anything that is like a balance beam," Kenzi argued.

"Look," Tamsin said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Unless you can come up with a better plan, we are gonna do it my way."

Kenzi groaned in frustration. She moved her eyes back and forth between the zombies and the trees, before she let out a heavy sigh and strapped the katana on her back. "Fine, but just...don't move too fast, okay? Don't expect me to do any acrobat shit."

"No one's asking you to do back handspring while holding ten lamps on a bracket between your teeth," Tamsin said impatiently as she tightened her backpack straps. She beckoned to Kenzi, telling her to come forward. Then, she grabbed the petite woman's waist and raised her up so she could reach a branch that was above them.

Kenzi grabbed the branch and lifted herself. She struggled to put one of her legs around it, and then the other one. Holding on to the branch firmly, she slowly rolled on top of it and eventually landed on her feet.

She let out the deep breath she had been holding as she balanced herself up there, and Tamsin winked at her before she jumped to grab the branch herself.

Swinging her body up, Tamsin practically threw herself on it. Then, she moved into a standing position swiftly, and gave Kenzi a nod.

They moved down along that branch, and switched to another one after they had reached a spot too thin to hold their weight.

Taking a deep breath, Tamsin stopped at the edge of the branch she was standing on while looking at another one that was a bit far away from them. She thought if she was lucky, she'd make that jump, but she gave up that thought since she couldn't afford the failure.

"Alright, we are gonna do it this way," she murmured to Kenzi as she stared at a hanging branch that was above their head. She reached for it and gripped it firmly to pull it down. Then, she slowly moved backwards while still pulling it.

She took a few deep breaths, before she started to sprint. Right before the branch under her feet bent downwards, she took off and swung herself across the air.

She let go of the branch in the middle, and landed on the target branch. She kept running while reaching her arms out to balance herself until she had a chance to grab the trunk of the tree.

She panted while carefully turning around. Then, she gave Kenzi a nod.

Kenzi shook her head like crazy, and Tamsin rolled her eyes.

"There is no other choice," she told the petite woman. "You'll have to do it."

Kenzi groaned and reluctantly held the branches that were hanging down. She moved backwards, and started to run, but stopped right before she took off.

She paused there and mumbled some prayers, before she moved back again with her shaking legs.

This time, she sprinted faster and jumped. She swung across the air while screaming, and let go of the branches too early.

Instead of landing on the branch on her feet, she hit it with the middle of her torso. Letting out a painful cry, she fell down.

She panicked. The fear of dying and being eaten by the zombies below made her throw her arms out to catch a branch below.

She landed on it on her chest, feeling like the air in her lungs had been punch out. She gripped to the branch tightly and struggled to pull herself up.

Slowly lifting her legs and then her hips, she eventually managed to land on there on her feet.

"Tamsin, I swear to God..." she murmured breathlessly as she looked at the blonde who was a few feet above her. Then, she lolled against the trunk while panting hard. She couldn't feel her legs, or her arms. Her chest was in pain like it had been hammered too hard. However, the feeling of being alive and in one piece still made her feel relieved.

She rested for a while, before she moved up to Tamsin's branch. "How long are we gonna keep doing this shit?" She asked.

Tamsin sighed. "I don't know," she answered honestly as she watched the group down below. She noticed that more zombies were coming from outside the woods. "Looks like more are all coming this way."

"Oh great," Kenzi groaned and closed her eyes. "Do you think we could survive if we start to build a treehouse up here right now?"

Tamsin huffed out a light laugh, though she wasn't amused at all. She tried to come up with a plan, where both of them could make out of here alive, but how? How could they get away from this many zombies while more are coming towards them? How far could they go between the trees before they were finally too exhausted to even hold themselves on their feet?

Despair seized her heart as she realized that there might not be an escape at all. What if there wasn't a way out? What if this was it? What if this was the last moment of her life, where she was trapped in a tree among hundreds of zombies, with a woman she barely knew?

She closed her eyes and scoffed. _No, I am not giving up._ She told herself while clenching her fingers. _Not like this_.

"Psst," Kenzi's whisper interrupted her. The petite woman gently tapped her shoulder, before she pointed at the other side of the river.

Tamsin looked over through the clusters of pine needles and cones that was in front of her. There, she saw a bulky guy standing among the flesheaters. He was wearing a dark gray hoodie. Most of his face was hidden behind the tattered hood and his hands were tucked in the front pockets. His dark gray fleece pants were tucked in a pair of muddy boots. The boots looked familiar. They looked like the ones that a government settlement had been handing out to its residents, and that made Tamsin frown.

She couldn't see his face, or much of his skin, so she couldn't tell if he was a zombie or not, but somehow she knew that he was an alive person.

But, how could he be an alive person? How could an alive person stand among hundreds of zombies just like that, without being attack?

The guy took a few steps forward and scanned the surroundings. When he saw a lot of zombies gather under a tree, he paused and looked up like he was wondering what was above there.

Tamsin and Kenzi both held their breath and hid themselves carefully behind the trunk. The blonde slowly and cautiously took a peek through the branches, and caught a glimpse of the man's face.

His face reminded her of those hitman or bodyguards she had seen in action movies. but other than that, there was nothing about him that would stand out.

The man quickly lost interest and took a step back. He let out a low, rather weird-tone whistle, before he took off and headed down along the river.

Most of the zombies immediately stopped growling or moving. They paused briefly and turned to him simultaneously. Then, they followed the man, dragging their legs across the river noisily and sloppily and marching away.

A small group chose to stay. They looked up and inhaled hungrily as they weren't ready to give up their preys yet. The bulky guy let out another whistle from afar, as if he was urging them to leave.

Most of them reluctantly followed the army. A few persistent ones stayed behind, waiting for Tamsin and Kenzi to come down, or to fall down.

The two women waited for the army to march away. After those monsters were far gone, they came down and killed the ones that were wandering on the ground.

"Who the hell was that guy?" Kenzi eventually asked, after she sheathed her blade and caught her breath. "I don't think he's a walker, is he?"

Tamsin shook her head. "I don't-"

She stopped abruptly when the murmur of the river reminded her of that time she and Bo had escaped from a group of zombies. The brunette was bathing herself in a river, and a large group of zombie showed up. Then, a bulky guy appeared, and whistled the zombies away, just like this.

She didn't see the guy's face last time, but she wondered if they were the same person. Who was he? How could he do that, whistling zombies away? Why would the zombies even follow his commands? Why wouldn't they attack him? Was he really an alive person?

"What, dude?" Kenzi nudged her.

"Nothing," Tamsin replied quickly "Nothing. Let's just get out of here before they return."

* * *

They continued their journey to the old house that Kenzi and Bo used to live in in the next few days. Other than a few stray zombies and some human survivors who tried to attack them but got their ass kicked, the rest of their journey was quite peaceful.

Days later, they had finally arrived at the house. The small, one story house stood quietly in the dusk. The trees in the backyard and the bushes in the front yard had been stripped naked by the early winter. A broken windchime hanging on the front porch sang some dull whimpers in the wind.

Part of the house had already collapsed for it had lacked maintenance for too long. The standing part was covered in foliage, vines and rubbles. A piece of a large falling tree branch had penetrated the roof. Kenzi rolled her eyes at the big hole it had created, and sighed.

She walked into the front yard, and stood by a big oak tree where a swing seat was hanging. One side of the seat was buried in mud since the rope on that side had been broken for a long time.

Kenzi brushed the dead leaves off the seat carefully, and watched a few spiders flee in panic. She tried to tie the two pieces of ropes back together, but it was too worn out.

She sighed again, and turned to the garage.

The garage door was closed. A message was painted on there using bright red paint. "I'm at the 4th settlement." Under that sentence, there was a simple map painted there telling her where the 4th settlement is.

It was Bo's writing, and that finding made Kenzi's heart squeeze painfully. She walked to the garage door and pressed her fingers on the writing while swallowing hard to stop herself from bursting into tears. Then, she turned to a yellow convertible that was parked outside the garage.

It was covered in rust, dirt and dead leaves. Its front hood had been popped up, and a few parts had gone missing. Three wheels of it were gone too.

Kenzi shook her head slightly. She checked the car but found nothing useful. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she stared at the house.

"If you wanna go inside, you probably should do it now," Tamsin reminded her. "We need to set up the camp before it's dark."

Kenzi nodded. After a brief hesitation, she walked to the door.

A row of dead potted plants were sitting on the front porch. Some pots were shattered, and she noticed that they seemed to have been broken recently.

Then, she noticed that the door was budged open and one of its hinges had been pulled off, like someone had forced their way into the house.

She frowned at it, before she pulled out her katana.

Tamsin unsheathed her weapon too. She approached the door in stealth and stood beside Kenzi.

Giving the petite woman a nod, Tamsin pulled out her revolver too.

Kenzi nudged the door, but it seemed that it was stuck. She pushed it hard, and it suddenly flung open in a deadly squeak.

 _Great_. Kenzi thought. _So much for the stealth plan_. She raised her weapon and stormed in.

Someone was sitting in the middle of the living room. Spooked by Kenzi's noisy entrance, that person jolted and turned to look at her.

Kenzi squeezed the hilt of her katana, about to swing it at that person, but when she saw her face, she froze there, shocked.

"Bo…?" She squinted her eyes hard while letting that name slip out from her lips.

Bo blinked, and then she blinked again. She rolled on her knees and opened her eyes wide at Kenzi. "Kenz?" She murmured, her voice shaking a little.

Kenzi gaped at the other woman. She quickly withdrew her hands when she realized that she was still holding her katana at Bo. She threw her weapon away and let out a choking laugh, before she threw herself at Bo.

"Holy shitface, is this shit real?!" She exclaimed as she hugged Bo tightly. "Oh my God, Bo-bo! I thought you were...I thought you were-" she mumbled loudly, turning into a teary mess in Bo's arms.

Bo choked out a few happy chuckles as she embraced Kenzi. Stunned and a little confused, she looked up, and saw an euqally stunned Tamsin standing there with a machete in her right hand and a revolver in her left.

She eyed those weapons. Then, she moved her eyes to Tamsin's face. Looking into those light blue eyes, Bo tried to pull her quivering lips into a smile, but all she could do was an awkward facial expression where her lips were crooked weirdly.

She had known that Tamsin was alive, but seeing her standing right in front of her was a whole new level of relief and wild joy.

Bo wanted to say something. She wanted to at least greet the blonde, but the moment she opened her mouth, her tears fell.

"Is that...really you?" Tamsin asked in a whisper. She gripped her machete tightly with her shaking fingers. She forced herself to focus. She wanted to figure out if this was another dream of hers, but how could she think straight when her heart was pounding so fast and so nervously? How could she think straight when Bo was right in front of her and looking back at her with those warm brown eyes that had been haunting her dreams for too long?

Licking her lips that had suddenly gone dry, Tamsin sucked in some air to relieve the painful thrills dancing in her chest. She desperately waited for Bo's answer. Was she real, or was she nothing but an illusion of her crazy, exhausted mind?

The brunette chuckled and nodded, smiling in tears. "Yeah, it's me."

Tamsin smiled back while putting her weapons in place. She had a hard time stuffing her gun back into its holster, and ended up putting it down on the floor.

She cleared her throat and rubbed her palm against her lap repeatedly while wondering if she should go give the brunette a hug. She wanted to. She wanted to hold her, to cup her face and to kiss every inch of her face, but Kenzi was there sobbing happily on Bo's shoulder.

She eventually walked to Bo and reached her hand out. She barely touched Bo's cheek with her trembling fingers, before she quickly withdrew them and gave Bo a firm squeeze on her shoulder instead.

Bo turned to her and smiled again. She reached for Tamsin's hand and held it in hers tightly with their fingers locked.

Holding Bo's gaze, Tamsin swallowed nervously. That moment, she knew that the brunette was real, so very real. As real as the little sparkles in those brown eyes. As real as that soft chuckle dancing in the air. As real as those smiling lips, that happy voice, that blazing warmth. As real as everything that was bubbling in her chest right now.

The night slowly fell, its darkness veiling the whole world. Kenzi started to babble about what had happened to her. She went on and on about the things that had happened in the military, in the settlement with Tamsin, and their journey to this old house, and almost every sentence of hers would make Bo chuckle or gasp,

Tamsin wasn't paying much attention to those babbels, though. She just looked at Bo while smiling like an idiot.

And every once in awhile, Bo would look back at her. Those bright sparkles in her dark eyes would make Tamsin's heart go wild and her mind go crazy.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally the reunion!**

 **If you are wondering about Bo's journey, don't worry, she's gonna tell Tamsin (and later Kenzi) all about it in the next chapter. And there is going to be some fluff since the two of them haven't seen each other for a very long time. :)**


	14. Chapter 14 - Invitation

**A/N: Sorry guys, posted the wrong chap. Now it's fixed :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 14 - Invitation**

After Kenzi had finally finished telling her stories, the three of them went to set up their camp outside the house. Tamsin cleared the dry grass out of the front yard so they could have a place to set up the fire safely. While she was doing that, Bo and Kenzi gathered firewood from nearby.

They started the fire first, and warmed themselves up a little before they went to set up a simple alarm system - ropes tied on the trees to enclose their little camp are in the middle. They hung some empty cans on the ropes; each can contained a few pieces of pebbles and they'd rattle along if anyone run into the ropes.

They shared some food beside the roaring flames afterwards, and Kenzi started yawning. She eventually told them good night and got into her sleeping bag.

She fell asleep in seconds, letting out quiet, frequent snores. Bo chuckled at her best friend and leaned in to give Kenzi a kiss on her hair. Then, she turned to look at Tamsin who was sitting beside her.

Tamsin uncomfortable licked her lips while dodging Bo's stare unconsciously. She wasn't sure what she should be looking at right now. Those soft lips? Those warm, smiling eyes? Or Bo's beautiful face in general? The orange glow from the fire rendered Bo so softly. She looked magical, too breathtaking to be true.

"So..." Bo started, sitting down beside Tamsin while looking at her.

"So…?" Tamsin repeated that simple word and raised her eyebrows. A simple glimpse of the brunette enchanted her. The flames in those brown eyes. Those bright, bright sparkles, they drew her in, in, in.

The air she had sucked in suddenly became heated, too hot for her lungs and her throat. Looking at Bo, looking at that subtle smile in the corner of her lips, looking at the shadow of her long eyelashes, Tamsin tried to understand how her longings for Bo could cause actual, physical pain inside her chest.

 _Breathe_. She told herself when she gently feathered Bo's cheek with the back of her index finger. _Just breathe_.

Slowly sliding her fingers into Bo's silky hair, she drew her near and pressed her lips on Bo's.

She did not linger. She wasn't brave enough. She wasn't trying to claim anything as hers, or take anything away from Bo. She just wanted to make sure that the brunette was alive and real.

She pulled back, letting out a nervous sigh while gazing into Bo's eyes.

The rapture of having Bo back was too intense. It made her quiver a little. She had thought she had lost her forever, the only person that she'd hold dear to her heart, but they reunited. Bo was here now. She was right here, right in front of her, smiling.

Tamsin couldn't help but kiss Bo again. Her heart thumped painfully when those sweet, sweet lips opened and invited her in.

She moaned into the kiss as she teased Bo's tongue and gave her a soft nibble. Bo teasingly bit her bottom lip as revenge and smiled against her lips.

Tamsin pulled back a little, and inhaled some air. Then, she cupped Bo's face, as if she was holding the most precious treasure of the entire world. She pressed a trail of kisses along Bo's jawline, on her nose, on her forehead, along her eyebrows, on her eyelids, and on her temples.

She took Bo into her arms afterwards, hugging her tightly while burying her face into the brunette's shoulder.

"I missed you," she whispered softly, inhaling Bo. A part of her still couldn't believe that the woman who had haunted her dreams since the earthquake now was really with her. "God I missed you, Bo…."

She knew how weak she sounded right now. She knew her voice was nothing but a low whimper, but she couldn't care less. She needed to get it out from her chest. She needed to embrace this weakness she had, because Bo was such a sweet weakness, a weakness she couldn't resist to have in her life.

"I know," Bo replied softly. "I missed you too, Tamsin, but if you hold me any tighter, I won't be breathing for much longer…."

Tamsin loosened her arms a little, and grunted something vague. Bo chuckled and cupped her face.

Their lips touched again, and again, until a sudden, loud snore coming from Kenzi startled them.

Both turned to look at Kenzi, and when they realized that Kenzi was still fast asleep, they turned to look at each other. Soft giggles bubbled out through their lips.

"Come here you," Tamsin invited as she scooted back to press her back against a tree. She let Bo sit between her legs and held her from behind.

Resting her chin on Bo's shoulder, she closed her eyes. The soft crackles from the fire, the chilly night wind and the river murmuring afar soothed her. Having Bo in her arms made her feel safe. She rubbed her cheek against Bo's, before she pressed a soft kiss on the side of Bo's jawline. A quiet, soft sigh was all she had to say right now.

Bo traced her thumb along Tamsin's fingers. She circled her fingertip on the back of her hand and on the side of her wrist. She placed her hand on Tamsin's afterwards, pressing their palms together and locking their fingers.

Nesting in Tamsin's embrace, she lazily looked at everything around her. There were the blazing flames, then there was this endless darkness. Everything else in her sight was either dead, crumbled or destroyed, except the sleeping Kenzi.

She found it funny that she'd feel such peace inside her right now. She had no roof above her head. She had no solid idea about the future. There could be a million zombies heading this way. There could be another deadly earthquake or something else that could instantly kill them. They could all die tomorrow, but at least she had Tamsin and Kenzi with her right now. The two people she cared the most were with her right now, safe and sound. Nothing, and no one, could ever take this moment away from her.

She turned back and searched for Tamsin's lips again. They kissed each other softly, pecking, nibbling, teasing. Then, they smiled into each other's lips and snuggled closer.

Nuzzling Bo's cheek, Tamsin murmured, "you haven't talked much about what happened to you."

"No, I haven't," Bo admitted in a hesitant stutter. "Umm, do you...do you want to hear my story right now?"

"Sure, of course," Tamsin shrugged.

"Okay," Bo said, "but umm...there's something that…."

"Okay?" Tamsin guided her to sit down on her lap face to face with each other. She used the tip of her thumb to rub some dirt off Bo's creamy skin while looking into those warm eyes.

"I..." Bo hesitantly started. "I guess it's probably better for me to start from when I woke up in the government settlement hospital."

"Or, you can start from the earthquake," Tamsin agreed as she put her arms around Bo's waist and pulled her closer. She paused briefly, before she said in a low voice, "I saw everything collapse while you were down in the canyon. I thought-I mean, how did you even get out?"

"I have no idea," Bo said. "I have no recollection of what happened after the earthquake. I was in the cave when it happened, and everything started to fall on me. I think I ran out? Or maybe I didn't...I mean, I don't remember, but I guess I might have fallen into the river or something cuz I remember being in water...anyway, the hunting team from a government settlement nearby found me by a creek. The doctor who treated me there, told me that-hey, I think you know her too. Dr. Lauren Lewis, that's her name. She said that you and Kenzi were-"

"I know her," Tamsin nodded. "She treated me too, and Kenzi. What did she tell you?"

"She said that I might have been carried out from under the canyon by one of the underground rivers or something. And...she also said that when they found me, they thought that I was dead at first."

"Oh, passed out?"

"No," Bo shook her head. "When they found me, I was barely breathing, and I had a very, very weak pulse."

Tamsin frowned, then she noticed that Bo was looking at Kenzi. "You mean...like when we found her?"

"Yep," Bo nodded again. "At least it sounded that way to me. They thought I was dead."

Tamsin shrugged. "Probably you are just...it could be a type of dor-"

"-dormancy," Bo spoke the word out at the same time Tamsin did. "Yeah, I know, that was Lauren's conclusion, some sort of dormancy."

"Well, who cares what that really was," Tamsin said, shrugging. She looked into Bo's eyes and took a deep breath. "You are alive, and you are right here."

She reached her hand out and placed it on Bo's chest. There, she felt her heartbeat, strong and steady. She leaned in and nuzzled that spot, before she pressed her lips on it. To her, that flutter under Bo's warm skin was the best thing in the world.

"You are alive, Bo, and you are right here," she repeated in a whisper as she buried her face in Bo's chest. "That's all that matters, to me."

Bo smiled while trying to contain the warm rush in her chest. She put her arms around Tamsin's head and gave the blonde a kiss on top of her head. "Yeah, I am alive," she murmured, feeling the blissful warmth squeezing her heart now. How lucky and grateful she was for not being dead.

"So...this is the big thing you wanted to tell me?" Tamsin pulled back a little and narrowed her eyes at Bo.

"No, not just this," Bo replied as she nervously bit her bottom lip. "There's something else that...well, when I heard that she had treated you and Kenzi and that you two left before I got admitted, I figured that I'd come down here looking for Kenzi, cuz I know that Kenzi would-"

"-come here," Tamsin said as she pinched Bo's nose playfully, and Bo nodded in a smile.

"I guess it's lucky that we met here," Tamsin said. "Had we missed you, I don't think either of us would have left you a message or anything here. We thought you were...dead."

With Bo in her arms right now, she could finally say that word out loud. She could finally convince herself that all those sleepless nights were just a bad dream.

"Well, I don't think that would be such a big deal, because even if I couldn't find you guys here, I'd at least find you in Brazenwood anyway."

"You-" Tamsin stuttered, a rush of heat dancing in her chest. "You'd come to Brazenwood looking for me?"

"It's not like I have more important things to do, is it?" Bo grinned.

Tamsin cleared her throat, and shook her head slightly in a smile. She held Bo tightly in her arms, like she was afraid Bo would be gone if she wasn't hugging her tight enough.

Bo twirled a lock of Tamsin's hair on her index finger and played with it for a while, before she hesitantly started again, "ummm...after I recovered, I left the settlement. Some of the hunters offered me a ride along the way. Then…."

Her took a long pause, and that made Tamsin frown.

"What?" Tamsin asked, concerned.

"I don't know how to-I noticed that, for the past few days when I was travelling on my own, sometimes I would just...not remember things.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, my mind would just blank out for a while and...I just don't remember anything that happened during then," Bo explained.

Tamsin raised her eyebrows and pondered for a while. "Maybe you are just too tired, or you just tuned things out, you know, like how you tune things out while going home everyday? The whole process is too boring, and we are too familiar with it, so we tune it out."

"I don't think it was like that. For me it was like...I don't even remember walking or doing anything. It was like...one minute I was walking on the road, and the next I was resting beside the river in the woods. The things happened in between just...got lost. I mean, before I found myself inside the house, the last thing I remembered was resting outside a gas station, but that was a couple of miles away from here.

"I think you are just too exhausted," Tamsin said as she kissed Bo's forehead. She rubbed her thumb on the darkened skin under Bo's eyes. "You've just recovered from...whatever that condition was. You were travelling on your own. You probably weren't getting enough sleep or food. It happens."

"You think so?" Bo asked, less worried now.

Tamsin nodded firmly. "Or..." she teased while tucking her fingers into Bo's hair. She fumbled with Bo's scalp playfully like she was searching for a bump, "...maybe you got hit by a rock during the earthquake, and that caused some permanent brain damage?"

Bo slapped her hand away in chuckles. "No, I've had all kinds of exams and check ups. Lauren said I was perfectly healthy, quote unquote, _too perfect for an earthquake survivor_."

Tamsin chuckled. "Well, as long as you don't wake up in the middle of the woods with fresh blood all over you and dead bodies lying around…."

Bo laughed quietly. Puffs of white fog came through her lips and danced in the air. "No, no dead bodies or fresh blood or anything," she said. Then, she frowned a little and added, "although, it was kinda weird that I haven't really encountered any zombies for the past few days."

"Really? Damn, you were so lucky," Tamsin growled. "You know how many fucking zombies Kenzi and I killed on our way here?"

Bo smiled as she caressed Tamsin's hand. She noticed a new scar on the side of the hand. "Maybe I was right ahead of them or something," she murmured while tracing her finger along the scar.

"Maybe you were."

"So...that was my story," Bo concluded, and Tamsin nodded along. Both of them went quiet for a short while, before Bo asked, "what's our plan now?"

Tamsin's heart skipped a beat at the word "our". "Well," she started. "Kenzi and I planned to head west to Brazenwood after visiting your old house, but we weren't expecting to see you here at all, so...I don't know. I'll probably just head back to Brazenwood tomorrow and-are you gonna go back to that settlement you were at? Or do you…."

The idea of inviting Bo to join her journey back to Brazenwood was enticing, and it almost slipped out from her mouth. However, it was also intimidating, because it sounded like she was asking Bo to move in with her or something.

Lowering her head, she rubbed her thumb against Bo's palm gently. "Anyway...what-what are you planning?"

"I'm not in a rush to return to the settlement," Bo murmured. "I...I guess I could ask Kenzi when she wakes up but...I don't think she has a place to go either."

She pondered, and stared at Tamsin's ticklish thumb absentmindedly. Then, she realized that she really didn't have a place on her mind that she'd want to be. Before today, the only purpose of her life was looking for Kenzi, and now she had finally found her. She suddenly had no idea of what she should do or where she should go next.

"I don't know..." she murmured. "What do you think?"

Tamsin shrugged. "I'm probably gonna be heading back to Brazenwood, but-I mean, if you want to check out how Brazenwood is like, I guess you could ummm…both of you could join me"

Amused, Bo raised her eyebrows at Tamsin. "Tamsin," she said as she looked into those light eyes. "I think the proper way of inviting me to join you would be: come to Brazenwood with me, Bo."

"I-I wasn't inviting you," Tamsin protested. "I was just giving you a suggestion. That's all. You don't have to go, and...and it's not like you can fit in anyway."

"I can't fit in anyway?" Bo folded her arms in front of her chest. "What I'm not good enough for Brazenwood?"

"It's just very different from the government settlements, okay?" Tamsin replied. "There is no handout in Brazenwood. You have to figure out how to get things on your own."

"I can hunt. I'm actually pretty good at it."

"No, I'm not just talking about just getting game meat. I'm talking about everything in general, like grains, dairy, clothing, or other stuff. I know everyone gets their monthly or quarterly ration in the settlements, but you are not gonna get that in Brazenwood."

"Oh," Bo nodded, a little surprised. "Then...?"

"Well, I guess you could probably get a job in the ranch like shoveling cow shit everyday. Then you could-"

Bo punched Tamsin's shoulder gently while letting out a few chuckles. "There's a ranch? Hey, I grew up on a farm. I actually do know a lot about raising farm animals and stuff," she said.

"So...are you really considering?" Tamsin asked.

"I don't know," Bo drawled. "You haven't invited me yet."

Tamsin sighed. "I..." she murmured, squeezing Bo's hand gently. "If-if you want to go check out Brazenwood, that's-" She stopped abruptly when she realized that it was exactly what she had said to Bo a minute ago.

She cleared her throat for a few times and stuck there. She had no idea why it was so hard for her to say " _Bo, come to Brazenwood with me"_ out loud. It was such a simple sentence, but with so much anticipation and so much intimacy. She was too scared to even try.

Bo shook her head and sighed, before she gave Tamsin a loud kiss on her lips. Instead of grilling Tamsin further, she asked, "so, can I at least hear more details about this Brazenwood before I even consider?"

"Sure," Tamsin nodded, "but I thought you've heard of a bunch of things about it already."

"Not really," Bo murmured, frowning, "I mean, yeah I've heard of a lot things about it, but...people were saying that it was a place full of outlaws and criminals and-you know, the living hell, too dangerous for anyone to go, no one should ever consider going there, blah blah blah."

"It can get dangerous sometimes, but for most of the time, it's alright," Tamsin pulled her lips into a rather proud smile.

"Then tell me. What is it really like?" Bo asked honestly.

Tamsin pondered for a long time, before she gently patted Bo's butt to tell her to get off her lap.

Bo sat down beside her, and Tamsin picked up a long, thin stick.

"The entire community is pretty much inside this community college," she explained to Bo as she doodled a simple map of Brazenwood on the ground.

She drew some rectangles as the buildings clusters, an irregular shaped contour as the lake in the back, and a few lines as the hills and forests behind the community.

"So the dorms are the dorms," she said as she pointed at a row of buildings. "Some people live inside, others prefer camping near the lake."

"There's the library, in case you ever get bored. Lots of books are still intact," she continued, moving to another group of rectangles, "then you got the student center, the only solar powered building. There's electricity there if you...want it. Some are thinking to expand the solar system to the dorms too, but I don't know if they'll ever find enough panels to install it. The diner on the first floor has been turned into a bar...you can drink, order food and stuff and-"

"Wait, there's a bar there?" Bo exclaimed, and immediately covered her mouth so she wouldn't wake up Kenzi. "Like...a real bar, with alcohol?"

"Well, it wouldn't be called a _bar_ if there was no alcohol, would it?" Tamsin shrugged.

"The settlements don't allow the use of alcohol, tobacco and other substances," Bo said. "Where do you even get the booze?"

"You can make booze from scratch, okay?" Tamsin said. "There's a brewery near Brazenwood. They make pretty good stuff."

"I ummm...I only had beer a couple of times before...you know, before this apocalypse," Bo admitted. "They told us that food is limited and making liquor would waste too much of it, so it's not allowed in the government settlements. And they also say that alcohol causes violence, so...I know people smuggling it in sometimes, but if they catch you, you are going to jail."

"Well, Brazenwood isn't a government property. You can have whatever you want as long as you don't cause any trouble," Tamsin told her.

Bo nodded while looking at the map. "What is that?" She pointed at a large square in the corner.

"That's the farm. Crops are grown there. Corn, potatoes, soy, wheat, squash, you name it," Tamsin introduced, "and the ranch. There are cows, goats too, and pigs…."

"No poultry?"

"Not a lot. Most people would keep a chicken coop or something like that in their own backyard."

"Backyard? I thought you said you live in the dorm buildings. And...do you own a chicken coop?" Bo asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Backyard as in the land behind the dorm. You can go grab a piece as yours and grow whatever you like. Some people grow flowers. Others grow veggies, or herbs or even weed."

After pausing for a bit, Tamsin rolled her eyes and admitted what seemed to be a little embarrassing. "Yes, I do own a chicken coop, because there's nothing wrong to include some fresh eggs in my diet."

Bo chuckled again. "What do you do to contribute to the community then?"

"Night shift zombie watch out, that's mandatory," Tamsin said. "People take turns on that. There are some volunteer work that opens from time to time, like building something new for the community and stuff. You get some reward for doing those...that's about it. Oh, all the public facility maintenance aren't free. You either join the team, or you pay your tax."

"How do you pay tax? I thought money stopped circulating a long time ago."

"There are things that can be used as money. You can get it by working on the farms or other places, then you can pay for things you need. You can trade things with others too."

"That's...not allowed in the settlement either," Bo said. "We can't own possessions, other than the ration we get. Everything is owned by the government. We aren't supposed to trade things either, although people sometimes do that. But, you don't really get a lot of supply anyway, so…."

Tamsin snorted. "You can trade stuff in Brazenwood. I scavenger hunt things and trade for things that I don't make or produce."

"What if you don't have things to trade? Like no one likes what you offer?"

"Then, either you come up with something that the others want, or you end up leaving," Tamsin said. "Some people don't like it there. They think life in Brazenwood is too harsh."

Bo nodded and pondered for a while, before she asked, "what about the crime and stuff? Do you even have law enforcement units?"

"We do have a group of bikers taking care of violent crimes and stuff. There are a list of rules you need to follow if you want to stay, like no stealing, no littering in the public area, not violence against the others, stuff like that," Tamsin explained. "So far, I haven't heard of anything awful yet, but I always lock my doors and windows, and keep my gun close."

"Will Kenzi and I be accepted?"

"There won't be anyone who decides whether you are qualified or not," Tamsin said. "It's not a closed community. People comes and goes all the time. If you like it, and you can get along with the others, no one's gonna say shit about you staying."

Bo nodded and went quiet again.

"So are you going to Brazenwood or not?" Tamsin asked.

"I don't know, Tamsin. Are you inviting me?" Bo teased, and earned a cold stare from the blonde. She glanced at Kenzi, before she asked, "can we even find an empty room to sleep there?"

"Oh there are plenty of empty rooms," Tamsin said. "Just grab one and it's yours. I live in a 3 bed dorm, and the other two rooms are empty."

"Is that your way of inviting me and Kenzi to move in with you?"

Tamsin choked. "I'm just giving an example of how many empty rooms there are!"

"Tamsin," Bo said softly while cupping Tamsin's face.

"Okay, okay, fine," Tamsin finally gave up. "Do you and Kenzi want to stay in those two empty rooms and share the living room with me?"

"Can't answer that question for Kenz, but yes, I do," Bo said in a wide grin.

She rested her head on Tamsin's shoulder, and the blonde put her arm around hers. They watched the night sky in silence for a long time.

Bo stared at the three bright stars that formed the belt of the Orion. They looked down at her coldly, like what they had been doing for millions of years. She couldn't recall how many times she had seen them before. They still looked exactly the same, but the earth had been completely changed. Everything down here had been turned upside down.

"Is this really gonna be how the world is like for the rest of our lives?" She asked in a whisper, hoping that some supreme being would answer her question.

"You'll be fine," Tamsin said, holding Bo's hand in hers. "We'll be fine." After pausing briefly, she added, "when we get to Brazenwood, we'll go see the doctor there and make sure everything's okay with you, okay?"

Bo nodded and ran her thumb along the other woman's finger. "I'm glad that I found you, Tamsin," she whispered sincerely.

Tamsin barely managed a nod and a squeeze on Bo's hand. She wanted to say something but her throat seemed to be too tight right now. She wondered if by finding her Bo meant finding her at the old house, or finding her in general, but either way, it warmed her.

The heat that made her heart clenched had travelled all over her body, giving her a sudden, dizzy rush.

She pulled Bo close and hugged her again, with a light kiss pressing on the brunette's temple. Inhaling hard, she closed her eyes and buried her face into Bo's shoulder.

There must be a million butterflies inside her right now. They danced frantically as if they were bathing in the sun in the spring where everything was vibrant and full of life.

* * *

 **A/N: My condolences to Clexa shippers and Lexa fans.**


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